Everything Comes Undone
by Ravyn913
Summary: Rose's life crumbles to pieces. Dimitri hates her, because she was right about Tasha. Lissa and everyone else hates her and they call her nasty names. Even her boyfriend Adrian is causing her pain. *Yummy New Characters*
1. Chapter 1

_This is my first fanfic im posting and this is the first fanfic im actually letting people read. Sorry for the first chapter being so short, next ones will be longer. I don't own VA._

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

My life completely sucked lately. Everything seemed so damn perfect, like a fairytale. I had the man I loved or so I thought. I guess I was just his play toy. Dimitri shattered my heart when I caught him having sex with Natasha Ozera. I never hated Christian's Aunt, I always got a weird vibe from her but I never hated her. Until I walked in on them doing it on the gym floor.

"You should probably find a room that allows you to lock the door!" The words left my lips before I could even think. Thankfully I spoke with no emotion. For the first time in my life I had my guardian mask on and it was perfect. It showed absolutely no emotion at all. At the sound of my voice both of their heads turned. Dimitri's eyes went so wide, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Tasha on the other hand had a very satisfied look on her smug face. I turned on my heels and walked out of the gym so fast that Dimitri didn't even have time to remove himself from Tasha.

That was supposed to be me; we were planning on doing that tonight. To finally give into each other. Fuck that, not going to happen ever with that lying, cheating, bastard. I can't believe I was stupid enough to even think that we could have something. (Of course you fell for it; you're only a toy to them.) I stopped myself from listening to my internal babbling. I put in my headphones and scrolled to Fireflight. I started listening to Forever on my I-pod touch. I turned up the volume just as Dimitri came running after me, this time fully clothed. I had been jogging but it turned into a flat out run. I let all of my anger, frustration, and the darkness from Lissa flow through me.

Dimitri was running as fast as he could, but he couldn't keep up. Lissa's darkness from using spirit is starting to take its toll on me. The darkness is slowly consuming me. My anger has been bubbling just below the surface for about a month now. Seeing Dimitri with Tasha like that, just pushed me closer to the edge. If something else happens today I may just snap.

I was getting ready to pass one of the giant trees near the front gate, when someone grabbed me. I thought it was Dimitri so I flipped him over my shoulder and he landed on his back. I was straddling him before I even knew what was happening, with my fist raised in the air ready to punch him in the face. Someone started clapping which startled me that I took in the facial features of the man beneath me.

(Oh Shit!) Screamed my inner voice. (You are so dead!)

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><p><em>Please review, thanks <em>

_Shannon_


	2. Chapter 2

_Nathaniel and Damon are my guys, I don't own VA. _

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

Oh God! I assaulted a guardian, one that wasn't even from St. Vlads. (Well you are defiantly going to get expelled for sure. Brava, Rose you just forced their hand. Say goodbye to your chance at being Lissa's guardian. I'm screwed all the guardians around including Alberta saw what I just did. In the next few minutes, Head Mistress Kirova will hear about this than it'll be all over.) Screamed my inner voice. I stared down at the man beneath me and I stopped myself from drooling. He wasn't hot, not by a long shot. He was beyond drop dead gorgeous. He looked like a god or a fallen angel.

He had long dirty blonde hair that was pulled into a pony tail at the base of his neck. His facial features looked like they were carved out of marble. I took in all of his facial features in a matter of seconds. Although it seemed like hours, or maybe time slowed down I was captivated by him. His eyes were what struck me the most; they were an impossible combination of blues. They were an impossible dark blue about the outside of the iris, while the area around the pupils were and amazingly light blue. The colors were separate that you could tell the two colors, but they blended together perfectly. I was mesmerized by his eyes but I needed to snap out of it, I was going to lose Lissa. That was what got me to move, thinking of losing my best friend.

I quickly got up off of the guardian, and offered him my hand to help him up. He accepted it so I helped it up. All of a sudden Alberta and Dimitri came over and Alberta started yelling at me. Actually yelling, something she never does unless she's extremely pissed off. Which I did because I attacked a guardian for no reason, well I had a reason but I was not going to tell her it was because of Dimitri cheating on me. I could not tell her that because it would be illegal to be in a relationship with a teacher.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, What The Hell Do You Think Your Doing?" I didn't even have time to answer, when a familiar voice answered for me.

"I asked her to attack My Guardian, to catch him off guard I wanted to test both of them since Miss Hathaway is one of the top novices here." All heads turned to the person that spoke, a tall moroi walked out from behind the tree. He had black hair, with dark brown eyes; he was handsome with amazing facial features. I would have been staring at him like all the other female students that were around, except I knew who he was. He is a very good looking guy.

"And who are you and why did you tell my student to attack?" Dimitri decided to speak, since Alberta seemed to be speechless no doubt she knows exactly who he is. Dimitri was obviously was clueless and spoke with a lot of venom in his words.

"His name is Damon Mazur." I stated matter-of-factly, and Dimitri's jaw dropped. He was completely struck stupid, but hell I would've been too.

"Thanks, Rose and nice job taking down Nathanial, I'd like to see you guys spar sometime." He walked over and gave me a huge hug and kissed the top of my head. Which all the guardians tried to hid their shock with their guardian masks. Most of them failed, Stan and Dimitri couldn't get theirs up which made me smile.

"Well Mr. Mazur, it would have been nice to know that Rose was supposed to do that. You just saved her from being expelled." Alberta stated sternly, with a shake of her head but there was and amused look in her eyes.

"Uh Damon you might want to brace yourself."

"Why?" He said with a confused look on his face, which turned into understanding as I started counting down from ten. Nathaniel gave me a sidelong look, like he was studying me to figure out what was going on. I got to number three when I side stepped to the right. There was an ear splitting screech yelling "DAMON" as Lissa flung herself into Damon's arms. He wrapped her into a giant bear hug and kissed her head. I chuckled lightly at what Lissa did. When he let her go of her he turned to Alberta.

"Guardian Petrov, I presume." Alberta nodded her head, so he continued to ask what he was going to say. "May I have permission to excuse Rose and Lissa from the rest of their classes today? I would love to catch up with them before my father arrives tonight."

"Let me call Head Mistress Kirova." He nodded and he took a few steps and started talking on her phone. A few minutes later say came back and said it was ok. Than excused herself to go back to work. The guardians slowly dispersed and so did the students to get back to what they were doing. We turned to start walking to the guest housing dorms when Dimitri finally spoke.

"Rose can I speak with you for a moment; it'll only take a minute?" His voice was normal but his eyes were pleading.

"I'm sorry Guardian Belikov. I don't have time right now." I said in a cold tone of voice I didn't even mean for it to come out so cold. This caused Dimitri to actually flinch.

"Rose, I'm your mentor and I demand you to talk to me.

"Well you didn't take the time to tell me that practice was cancelled for the next few days, and you know exactly where you can shove your demands. We are a little busy but maybe I'll make time to talk later, goodbye." He had his guardian mask on but pain and regret flashed through his eyes but only I could tell they were there. Nathaniel was tense and so was Damon, Lissa on the other hand seemed completely oblivious to the extremely thick tension that hung in the air. Lissa said goodbye to Dimitri as we turned and lace our arms in Damon's arms. I looked behind me and I wish I didn't, because there was so much pain on Dimitri's face it was unbearable. So many emotions were showing that it almost made me sick.


	3. Chapter 3

_No offense to Dimitri fans i like him but i want to be different. Dont hate me._

_My thanks to _

_loventherussian17_

_deliciouse_

_and _

_sunayna4sho_

_Thanks for all the reviews and your questions will be answered soon probably in the next chapter_

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><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

"I'm sorry if I hurt you back there, I'm having a really shity day so I kind of went into self defense mode when you grabbed me." I said while looking at Nathaniel.

"Its fine Rose, I was only trying to get your attention, because that guardian was trying to get your attention. I'll just try to remember not to do that again." He let out a deep low chuckle which made his chest shake. I wonder what it would be like to slide my fingers down his bare chest, or snuggle against his chest as he laughs. (God Rose what the hell are you thinking. This is so Not the time to be checking out Damon's Guardian. Not after what you walked in on, in the gym with your so called boyfriend.) My internal babbling was interrupted when Nathaniel spoke again. "What did Guardian Belikov want, if I'm not intruding?" This comment got Lissa and Damon's attention. I swallowed my emotions and put my mask on.

"I'm pissed at him; he didn't bother telling me that practice was cancelled for the next few days. I guess his girlfriend wanted to spend time with him." It wasn't a lie but it wasn't the whole truth either. By the look he gave me he knew I wasn't saying everything. He also gave me a look that said –talk to me later about if you want to‒ which was a little weird. Lissa spoke with a weird expression on her face, a mixture of confusion and joy.

"Dimitri has a girlfriend? Do I know her?" I kept my face blank as I told her.

"It's Tasha." I said in a low whisper. Her face showed nothing but shock.

"What they said they were just friends!" What she said was the truth they did tell us they were just friends, but she did make that offer.

"Well it looked like they were more than friends, maybe he took her offer."

"Offer, what offer?" Good job Rose, Lissa and Christian didn't know.

"She offered him to become her guardian with benefits." I stated flatly. I could feel through the bond that Lissa was getting pissed; lately she had a lot of darkness in her. We needed to find away to control it.

"He's supposed to be MY GUARDIAN." She hissed out which was almost a shout.

"Shhs, Lissa calm down…" I didn't get to finish what I was saying because she cut me off.

"What benefits did she offer?" Oh god why did she have to ask that. I was rubbing her arm as I cleared my throat.

"She offered him a family." This made her even more pissed. I took a small amount away from her and she seemed to calm a little. _Rose I'm so sorry, we'll talk about this later umm were you still with Dimitri._ Lissa asked me through the bond. "We'll talk about this later ok." I whispered so that only Lissa could hear. Nathaniel seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on, which was kind of funny since he doesn't know about the bond.

"Oh by the way Damon thanks for saving my ass back there."

"No problem. Besides I did want you to spar with Nathaniel but it was a good excuse to get you out of being expelled." He actually laughed.

"Damon you could of at least mentioned it to at least give me a heads up." Nathaniel huffed out which cause the three of us to laugh.

"Well I didn't know Rose was in a bad mood. Plus she was supposed to do it in the gym before dinner."

"Ok, well Rose would you like to spar later on tonight?" He actually seemed eager to spar; maybe he wanted to get even for my putting him on his ass. Nathaniel opened the door to the guest housing dorm and held it open for us. Lissa and I said thank you at the same time which made both Nathaniel and Damon laugh. Damon said thank you and led us to his room. All four of us were talking for about two hours. Lissa and Damon wanted to talk so, Nathaniel and I left the room to give them some privacy.

We decided to go to Kirova's office to see if we could spar in the gym before dinner. On our way there we ran into Dimitri, so I told Nathaniel that it would only take a few minutes and I'd be back. He seemed to be a little reluctant to let me go with Dimitri, Dimitri saw it and gave Nathaniel a nasty look. They decided to stare each other down so I started walking away, which got their attention. Nathaniel stayed where he was while Dimitri followed me into the closest empty conference room.

He closed the door while I leaned up against the long table. He turned to face me and for a few minutes he just stared, taking in all of my features. There was lust in his eyes but as soon as he saw me glaring daggers at him. The lust was gone and there was only regret and sadness. (He is such an asshole!) I pushed that thought out of my head, I would hear him out.

"What do you want Guardian Belikov?" The question came out with more venom than I wanted it to, which caused Dimitri to flinch.

"I would like to explain what you saw, today if that's ok." I nodded my head and he continued. It seemed like he was possessed by something he was harsh and cruel, or it was true that he was just using me and didn't actually love me. "Roza, did you honestly believe that I loved you?" I didn't get to say anything cause he continued. "You realize you're stupid, right. How could I love a child, what we had was nothing. You were just a dhampir blood-whore, who was just a toy." Something was seriously wrong but I didn't know what it was. He just went on and on about how worthless I was. This was not Dimitri I knew that much but I didn't care he berated me and acted like I was nothing. Well I had enough especially after he said something completely heartless. "You're a play toy and that's all you'll ever be especially to me." I snapped.

"Well that makes two of us." I said in a deadly calm voice. I saw that he just realized what he had said. So I turned to walk away, I was reaching for the door handle when he grabbed, spun, and pinned me against the door. He had tears in his eyes as he looked at me pleadingly.

"Roza… please I'm so sorry I didn't mean that. I don't know why I said that I had no control, please forgive me." He begged me, Dimitri Belikov actually begging. Everyone thought he was a God but he's nothing but a pathetic little boy.

"Dimitri save it for someone who actually gives a damn because I don't. If you didn't want me all you had to do was say so instead of me finding you screwing Tasha in the gym." He released his hold on me; I let my words sink in.

"Please!" Was all he said and then he kissed me. I pushed him back so hard that he stumbled. I couldn't stop myself, my hand move on its own accord. I slapped him right across the face. My hand was throbbing as pain rippled up my arm. He stared at me in disbelief.

"You're Pathetic!" I said sternly as I retched open the door and steadily walked away from the man I had loved. I left him crying as he whispered please Roza.

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><p><em>Please Review thanks<em>

_Shannon_


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks for all the reviews. Some of your questions were answered and some other questions will be answered in the next chapter. I hope you guys like it._

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><p><strong>Chapter Four <strong>

"Rose wait up." Called a familiar voice, I turned around to end up looking into Adrian's captivating green eyes.

"What do you want Adrian?" It came out harsh so I apologized to him.

"What happened? Your aura's really dark and I heard Belikov crying." He said Belikov like it was poison.

"Let's just say you were right, I'll tell you later ok."

"Where should we meet?" He asked with concern showing on his face.

"Your room, after dinner and I have to go I'll see you later." I gave him a small smile and walked over to Nathaniel. He looked at me and asked if I was ok.

"I'll talk later let's just see if we can get permission to spar." He didn't say anything but he nodded his head. We walked to the office in a comfortable silence.

**DPOV**

What the hell just happened? I was talking with Tasha this morning when she asked me her offer again. I declined because I wanted to stay with my Roza, than I was looking at Tasha and completely forgot about my Roza. Things with Tasha got hot and heavy; I was making love to my love. When the sound of the gym door opened, and then came a female voice. Both Tasha and I turned our heads to look at the female and my heart dropped it was my Roza. What have I done? Roza finished speaking turned on her heels and walked out. I knew what Tasha had done; she was supposed to be my friend. But she fucking compelled me; she caused me to hurt the love of my life. I will never forgive her. I got away from her and got dressed; I went to go after Rose.

I was chasing after her but she wasn't paying attention, than she started running and I couldn't keep up. I ran after her for about ten minutes, when some guy grabbed her. I watched the whole scene unfold and I thought for sure she was going to be expelled. What I didn't expect was Damon Mazur to cover for Rose. I listened to what was being said but I was extremely curious about how they know each other. After the whole ordeal I tried to talk to Rose, but she blew me off and actually called me guardian Belikov. That stung and made me flinch especially the way she said it.

I watched as Lissa Rose and Damon walked away with their arms laced together, Nathaniel was walking beside them. I turned and headed off to go find Tasha, I had a lot to say to her. Then I would talk to Kirova. Tasha using compulsion magic on a guardian is illegal. I can't believe she did that, she knew I loved her like a friend and nothing more. She knew I have feelings for Rose. Why would she want to fuck up my relationship? Well I'm going to get my answers.

**Later on in the day**

Roza led me to one of the empty conference rooms, after Nathaniel didn't want to let her come with me. She was leaning up against the table, she looked so hot. I was taking in her features which instantly caused me to feel lust. I looked into her eyes and she was shooting daggers at me. The lust was gone and I remembered what I had to say to her. When I said what I had to I realized what I said, and regretted it immediately.

She was calm through the whole ordeal like she wasn't even there then she spoke words that broke my heart. I needed her to forgive me that this wasn't me so I begged. Yes I was begging, I did not want to lose my Roza. So I did the first thing I could think of which was to kiss her. I stumbled backwards as she pushed me, than she slapped me across the face as hard as she could. She looked like her hand hurt, but she put her guardian mask up. "You're Pathetic!" She said sternly and retched open the door. She left me crying, as I whispered her name but she kept going. I cried for a few moments than wiped my face. I cleared my throat and pulled out my cell phone and called Alberta. She answered on the first ring.

"Hey Dimitri what has you calling?"

"Hello Alberta I was wondering if I could cancel Rose's practice for a few days. As you know Lady Ozera is here and she wants me to spend some time with her and to take her shopping on Saturday. Plus I figure since Rose has been working so hard at training that she could use a little time off, if that's alright with you and Head Mistress Kirova."

"Let me ask her she's right here." In the background I heard her ask. A few minutes later she answered me. "Everything is good you can hang out with Lady Ozera. We will let Rose know, oh here she is and so is Guardian Harper, would you like to tell her."

"No you can, I have a shift in a few minutes and I need to get there." Who the hell is Guardian Harper?

"Don't worry about it; I'll have a guardian cover it. Hold on a second." I heard her say to Guardian Harper "Can you cover Guardian Belikov's shift in a few minutes?" I heard the guardian answer and my heart dropped, Guardian Harper is Nathaniel. I almost screamed into the phone. "Guardian Harper said he'll cover your shift."

"Thank you." I said stiffly, why the hell is Rose hanging out with that guy. (Because you broke her heart and she can hang out with whoever she wants.) My mind yelled at me but it was true, I hurt her and she could hang out with whoever she wants to. Yet I didn't want her hanging out with Damon or Harper.

"Go rest in your room, an hour before dinner Rose and Guardian Harper are going to spar in the gym. Damon Mazur wants to see how good Rose is. Well, I'll see you later Guardian Belikov." She said sounding happy.

"Thank you Alberta, see you later." I hung up the phone and walked to my room. I unlocked the door. When I was inside I locked the door and went into the bathroom. I turned on the shower, got undressed and stepped into the scolding hot water. I braced myself against the shower wall and bowed my head. I don't know how long I was under the water crying. The only reason I got out was because the water was ice cold. I got out dried myself off and got dressed than I laid on my bed. I must of fallen asleep because I jolted awake with about a half an hour left before I had to go to the gym. I sat on my bed and waited until it was time to head to the gym.

**Alberta's Office back to RPOV**

We walked into Alberta's office and she was on her cell. Exchanges were made and I froze when she said Guardian Belikov. Nathaniel of course saw this and gave me a look that said -we will defiantly talk about this later-. I was caught so I just nodded my head and listened to the conversation. I stayed quiet the whole time and answered when I needed to. From what we heard we already were allowed to spar. Nathaniel took over Dimitri's shift and he asked if I could tag along so I could get some experience for checking wards. Alberta thought this was a great idea so she allowed me to go with as Nathaniel's partner. She also assigned Nathaniel as my temporary mentor while Dimitri had off when I told her i didn't need a break. When we were done we left and headed out to do Dimitri's shift. Nathaniel offered me a stake but I pulled mine out and showed him I had one.

He looked at me with surprise. He asked how I had gotten it. I told him about the Strigoi in Spokane where Mason died. He saw the sadness and regret in my face and he run his fingers down my arm trying to reassure me that it was ok and that it wasn't my fault. Then I told him about the attack on the school about a month and a half ago, than he asked about my molnija marks. So I pulled my hair away from my neck to show him, he was speechless. So we walked in silence for awhile, until he finally broke the silence.

"May I ask what was going on between you and Guardian Belikov?"

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><p><em>Please review Thanks<em>

_Shannon_


	5. Chapter 5

_In this chapter i'm answering some of your questions. I will answer more questions in later chapters._

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><p><strong>Chapter Five<strong>

I froze; I stopped dead in my tracks for a few minutes. I could barely breathe; it felt like my throat was closing. Just than Stan decided to walk by, he saw me with Nathaniel and gave a puzzled look. Nathaniel told him that it was a training exercise and told Stan that he asked why I had a state. He also said that I told him about the school being attacked that's why I looked the way I did. Stan knew how it affected me and by the look on his face it affected him too. He nodded and told me this was good practice for when I would have to check wards and the perimeter when I become a guardian. I nodded in agreement and Guardian Alto walked way. Nathaniel leaned over to me and whispered into my ear that we'd talk in private after this shift.

We finished the shift and walked into the guest housing again. We were outside Nathaniel's room when he seemed to space out. I just studied him not saying a word or doing anything. His eyes seemed blank, like he wasn't even there. I knew what was happening so I turned the key that he had put into the door before he spaced. I slowly pushed him into his room and took the key out of the door. I walked into the room and closed the door. I leaned up against the wall next to the couch and waited. He snapped out of what he was doing and took in his surroundings, than he saw me. He tried to apologize for spacing out but I shook my head.

"Don't apologize, I know what happened." I stated firmly, I couldn't believe it at first but I was watching him all day.

"You have no idea of what happened." He sounded a little harsh. He was getting a little pissed off.

"Yes, I do." He slammed his fists into the wall on either side of my head keeping me where I was.

"You do not know." I lightly placed my hand on his arm to try and clam him then I took a deep breath.

"You're Shadow-Kissed." I said calmly. He looked me in the eyes and he stepped closer to me, his body almost pressed against mine. His eyes seemed to be darker.

"What did you call me?" He whispered in my ear, in a gruff voice. I swallowed; there was something about him being this close made me get butterflies.

"Shadow-Kissed." I whispered. "You slipped into my brother's head." I said matter-of-factly. His head whipped up from my ear so fast I thought he's be dizzy.

"Your brother?" I nodded my head and he stared at my face. After a few minutes, his face showed surprise. He stuttered out his next words. "Your Damon Mazur's half-sister, well hell he told me he had a half-sister but he didn't say it was you." He looked at me dumbfounded.

"If we sit down I'll explain everything to you." He nodded his head, but didn't move. So I just looked at him. Since I was looking at him he raised an eyebrow.

"Damn, not you too!" I huffed. He gave me a weird look. "The eyebrow thing." He raised his eyebrow again. "Ugh why am I the only one that can't do that, it's not fair?" I huffed again which caused him to laugh. "What's so funny?"

"You are." He whispered into my ear.

"Well are we going to sit down and talk or are we just going to stand here, like this?" I whispered, my voice sounding a little husky. He looked confused then he realized how we were standing. He blushed, apologized and backed away. We than sat on his bed cross legged as we spoke. I told him everything well not about Dimitri anyway.

**Flashback**

_It was when Lissa and I ran away; we had been in Portland for awhile. We both had jobs during the day and stayed in the apartment at night with our human roommate. When we had enough money we fled to Russia after we were attached by PSI Hounds. At the time we though the Academy sent them after us. Later on we found out it was Viktor. We were hiding out in Baia, when we were attacked by a bunch of drunk humans. I tried fighting them off when about six Guardians came out of nowhere and took care of the humans._

_Lissa and I were getting ready to run when the Guardians grabbed us. The leader of the group of Guardians told us that we needed to come with them. We had no choice to go with them, we were outnumbered and I couldn't take on six fully trained Guardians. Lissa and I were put into separate black SUV's and were taken to a huge ass mansion. It was about twice the size of the Academy. We were ushered out of the vehicles and escorted into the mansion. They led us into what seemed like a study where a Moroi was sitting behind a desk. He was introduced as Ibrahim Mazur, his name was Turkish._

_He knew are names and said that he had his Guardians keeping an eye on us. He had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He stood up and that's when I saw his scarf, and my jaw dropped. Lissa asked why he had us followed but I knew the answer. So I said it out loud. "He's my father!" Lissa looked at me than back to Ibrahim. She did this a few times and then she realized that we had the same features. She also noticed the scarf then she spoke. "Your mother has the same symbol on her scarf!"Ibrahim nodded his head yes and conformed that he was my father. He also stated that I was very observant and that we could call him Abe._

_He gave us rooms and told to get some sleep that he would take care of our motel and get our stuff. That we would take about things in the morning. Our rooms were next to each other and they were huge. King sized four poster beds, multiple couches, giant walk in closets, hand carved wooden tables, dressers, cabinets, and a giant hand carved wood desk and chair. There was a 72 inch plasma flat screen TV on the wall. The bathroom was as big as my room at St. Vlad's. It was nothing but marble and granite with a shower that had twelve shower heads and a giant Jacuzzi tub. This was heaven. Man Abe has a lot of money and he is a non-royal with a lot of Guardians._

_The next morning we talked and Abe told us that we could stay as long as we'd like and that he would contact St. Vlad's. He agreed to that only after we told him that someone was after Lissa. He also had me train with each of his Guardians. Aleksandr Sidorov who was his head guardian, Nikolai Ivanov and his younger sister Larisa Ivanov, and Toby Peterson were his guardians. I ended up giving Aleksandr, Nikolai, and Larisa nicknames and only Lissa and I could get away with calling them that. (Nicknames: Alek, Nik, and Lara.) I also had to train with Damon's Guardians._

_Jesse Strunk and Ezra Fitzgerald were Damon's Guardians and Damon was my half-brother. His mother was killed when Damon was two by a group of Strigoi and Abe met my mother when Damon was 10. (In the present Damon is 28, while Rose is turning 18 in a few months.)Damon took mainly after our father just like me._

_**A year and a half later**_

_Lissa and I were out at one of the local malls, when we were trapped by a group of guardians. There were at least ten, and that's when we met Dimitri Belikov. Who had been staying with his family when he saw us one day. He had contacted St. Vlad's were he had transferred to, he was ordered to take us back. We didn't have a choice so we went. No one knew where or who we were staying with, we just told them we moved around a lot. We had been gone for two years. (Six months in Portland, and a year and a half in Russia.)When we got back to school it was hell, I was almost expelled. Dimitri ended up having to train me because I was behind even though in training I was not but I held back._

**End Flashback**

Nathaniel was surprised to say the least. I told him that only Lissa knew that I was Abe's daughter besides my mother but she didn't know that we knew. So he couldn't tell anyone, which he understood. I told him about how I became Shadow-Kissed, about the darkness getting to me sometimes. I was comfortable with talking to him, I felt like I could tell him anything. He then asked about what was going on between Guardian Belikov and me.

I couldn't lie to him so I told him the truth about everything and the real reason why I had attacked him. He was supportive and then he voiced his opinion about Dimitri possibly being under compulsion. It actually made sense and would explain his behavior but why would Tasha do that. Nathaniel stated that the reason could be jealousy, which also made sense. Nathaniel started to notice that talking about it was starting to get to me so he switched the subject over to being Shadow-Kissed.

We talked for awhile about spirit and its affect on us. He told me about how he and Damon found a way to help with the darkness using silver jewelry charmed with spirit. He said he'd also have Damon show Lissa how to charm silver for me. After we were done talking about spirit and the darkness that came with it we just talked and got to know each other and he even let me get away with calling him Nate. It was about a half an hour before the sparring match would take place so we headed down to the gym.

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><p><em>Thanks for the reviews<em>

_Shannon_


	6. Chapter 6

_I hope you guys like it. Happy 4th Of July._

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><p><strong>Chapter Six<strong>

We walked through the gym, went to the locker rooms and changed into sparring clothes. After that we walked out onto the track, we started running laps. We ended up doing 100 laps; I was extremely wired from today's events. So I had a lot of energy to burn off before sparring. Nathaniel seemed to be letting go of the darkness, just like me. When we were done, we grabbed out water bottles and drank half the bottle. We headed back into the gym, where guardians were already setting up the sparring area so we helped.

Nathaniel and I started doing stretches, while people started filing into the gym. Damon and Lissa walked over to us, and they actually told us to play nice. Which caused us both to laugh, when they walked away from me Adrian came up to me. He gave me a hug and conformed that I was going to met him later. I nodded my head and he turned to Nathaniel. He introduced himself to Nathaniel and wished him luck, saying that he'd need it. He walked away and sat down on the bleachers with Lissa and Christian. When everyone was seated Alberta walked up to us, and said have fun.

I plugged in my I-pod touch onto the dock and it started blaring Disturbed's album The Sickness. Then walked onto the mats and got into a disorganized stance to try and throw off Nathaniel. It seemed to work because he lunged forward; I sidestepped him, stuck my foot out and tripped him. He stumbled forward, stopped himself from falling and turned in time to take a blow to the stomach from my kick. I blocked most of his hits, and he did the same with my hits.

The match lasted about a half an hour, when I got an opening I flipped him onto his back. I ended up straddling him like I did earlier; I let my guard down and our hands landed on each other's heart. We ended up in a tie because we declared each other at the same time. Everyone applauded to the match but it was cut off by a very ticked off Russian.

"ROZA, what the hell was that?" I ignored the voice as I got up and helped Nathaniel up. Everyone else was looking at the person who spoke.

"What are you talking about Alek?" I said turning around. He walked up to me, before he spoke.

"You know actually what I'm talking about. You could've had him on his ass in less than five minutes, and you know it. You also were taking it easy on him; I am very disappointed you can take on at least five Guardians by yourself." He stated bluntly and everyone looked at me. I crossed my arms across my chest and spoke.

"I'd rather not hurt the Guardians and they thought I wasn't training when I was gone so I never corrected them." This made him chuckle.

"They'd be better off knowing how well you fight; by the way how many laps did you run before coming in here? Nathaniel looked a little tired when you guys started sparring, but you didn't."

"We ran a hundred laps." I stated firmly. Alberta and the rest of the Guardians jaws dropped and the look on Dimitri's face was priceless.

"Now you're going to fight. You're not going to hold back and you're going to be equally matched." I nodded my head, and all my father's guardians stepped forward including Damon's other guardian the only one I didn't see was Jesse.

"Rose you are not ready to go against multiple guardians, yet. Especially these five, well trained guardians." I shook my head and got into my proper fighting stance.

Disturbed was blaring through the speakers and we started the match. I watched all my opponents as we circled each other. Lara and Nik attacked together since they were siblings they worked well together, they both threw a punch at the same time. I dodged both of them and slipped in between them, I made it look like I was falling as I went towards the ground. I spread my legs apart and tripped both of them with my feet. I bounded off the mat using my hands and quickly was back on my feet in a blink of an eye. I threw a kick to Nik's side as he got up. He doubled over, as his sister threw a punch at my head I side stepped her and she accidently hit Nik. I kneed her in the stomach as she lunged forward to try and hit me. I grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back just as Nik was trying to punch me in the back of the head. I pushed my hand into her back and said dead. I released her and she walked off the mats.

Nik came at me and he ended up knocking me down which I used to my advantage when he tried to pin me to the mats. I brought my feet up, knees up to my chin and pushed when his chest touched my feet. This caused him to flip, but I was holding on to his shirt so I flipped with him. I declared him dead before he even realized what happened. Toby and Ezra came at me and I blocked and dodged both of them. I managed to take both of them out at the same time. Then the only person left was Alek. We squared off and just threw punches and kicks, blocking and dodging the whole time.

"Roza you're holding back!" He scolded me while nodding his head.

"So are you!" I retorted, as he threw a punch full force at my jaw. I barely managed to block it. Now this was going to be fun, we weren't holding back. We both took some heavy blows; he kicked me in the ribs on my left side and I landed on my back. Well that's going to hurt; I was going to have one hell of a bruise there. He was going to pin me so I rolled to the side and got on my feet. I punched him square in the jaw and there was a sickening crack and he faltered. He gave me a very pissed off look and went after me.

I turned and ran to the wall I jumped, and kicked off the wall. I put my feet in line with his chest when they connected I back flipped and landed on me feet as he flew backwards. I was over him in seconds as I placed my hand on his chest I declared him dead. He was stunned stupid, as someone clapped their hands. I turned and looked at who was clapping, it was non-other than Abe. I winced in pain as I sat down next to Alek. He sat up and stared at me.

"Now that's how you fight, except you didn't have to break my jaw." He saw me wince when I inhaled.

"It's nothing." I whispered. Abe finally spoke.

"Aleksandr, I do believe Rose is the first person to actually kick your ass." Everyone gawked at us. Alek stood up and extended his hand to me. I accepted it and he pulled me up. This caused me a lot of pain and I clutched my side.

"Rose let me see your side." He demanded, so I lifted my shirt. There were collective gasps all around the gym. "Ебать я так жаль Roza."(Fuck I am sorry Roza)

"I think that's the first time I ever heard you say fuck." I stated and laughed which caused more pain. Dimitri looked at me, with disbelief in his eyes.

"Lissa get over here now." He yelled to Lissa.

"I'm fine; she doesn't have to heal me. She should heal your jaw, I'm sorry I broke it." I said the pain was so bad that I was going into shock.

"Rose I broke at least five of your ribs, you are not ok." Alek held me upright, as Lissa came over to us. She placed her hand lightly on my side, it cause so much pain that an ear splitting scream escaped from my lips. Then everything went dark as I passed out. I felt heat and cold radiate throughout my body. A few seconds later I woke up lying on the mats.

"Shit that hurt." I stated dryly. "Hey you got your jaw fixed." Alek laughed.

"Only you would say that Rose. How are you feeling?" He asked and then my stomach growled. Which cause everyone to laugh.

"I'm hungry, what do you think?" He helped me up; I walked over to Lissa and hugged her. "Thanks Lissa."

"Anytime Rose, now let's get some food. Alberta wants to talk to you after dinner, everyone else is already there." She smiled widely at me. "Everyone couldn't believe how great you were." Everyone that was still with us walked to the cafeteria. We got our food and sat down; we talked while we ate. After dinner I left and went straight to Alberta's office.

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><p><em>Please Review<em>

_Thanks_

_Shannon_


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks for the reviews was busy yesterday to actually post this chapter. If anyone has questions, write it in the review. I'll answer them either in a message or a chapter._

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><p><strong>Chapter Seven<strong>

I knocked on Alberta's door and she told me to come in. I walked in and her office was full. Abe and his guardians were there, so were Damon and his. Dimitri, Stan, and a few other school guardians were there was well. All conversation stopped when I entered the room. The guardians from school looked at me with wonder, while Dimitri looked sad through his guardian mask. I ended up getting yelled at and then congratulated on a job well done. We talked back and forth for a little while. Alberta told everyone that I'd be training with Abe and Damon's guardians while Dimitri had off and that when his break was up. He'd be joining them with training me. Alberta gave us the specifics and I was allowed to leave. I walked out of the office and made it halfway down the hall when an arm went around my shoulders.

"Hello little Dhampir, where are you going?" Adrian said cheerfully, and he smelled like his clove cigarettes. I smiled at him, he smelled good even though I didn't like him smoking.

"I was heading to you room."

"Ah yes, well shall we?" I nodded as we started walking; he turned his head and looked back. "So how are you feeling?"

"I'm better why, don't like me hurt?" I said sarcastically.

"Do you realize that you got a serious set of pipes?" I laughed as we walked to the guest housing. We went through the doors and up to his room. He unlocked the door and we stepped inside. We sat on the bed and faced each other. He told me to tell him what was going on. So I told him, I also told him the theory that Nathaniel came up with about Tasha using compulsion. He thought about it for awhile and then he told me, that when he heard Dimitri crying in the conference room he also heard Tasha speaking to him. Adrian told me that it sounded like she was using compulsion, but there was no proof so we couldn't report it. We talked awhile more, until it was about half an hour till curfew.

Adrian opened his door and walking down the hall was Dimitri. Dimitri froze as he saw me with Adrian. Of course Adrian decided to see if he could get Dimitri jealous which of course it worked, Dimitri was fuming. I hugged Adrian and he kissed me on the top of the head. I told him good night and he shut the door. I was left in the hall with Dimitri still frozen in place. I went to walk past him when he grabbed my arm.

"Why were you just in Adrian's room?" He said in a cold tone.

"I was hanging out with him but it's really none of your business." He grunted at what I said.

"I want you to stay away from both of the Mazur's and their guardians outside of training."

"Don't tell me what to do Guardian Belikov, at least I can think by myself. Вы эгоистичны рывок! (You are a selfish jerk!) Кроме того, это более, если вы не знали! (Also it's over if you didn't already know) Oh, and by the way Tasha is using compulsion on you." I said sternly as I pulled my arm from his grasp and walked away. Is he so dense that he can't see that he's being compelled? I was at my door when I remembered I didn't tell Lissa what was going on. I opened the door and there was a letter with my name slipped under the door. I picked it up after I closed my door and set it on my bed. I pulled out my cell phone and texted Lissa.

_**Hey Lissa is it ok if we talk tomorrow I'm exhausted**_

_**Sure Rose, we'll talk in the morning good night love you**_

_**Good night love you too**_

I grabbed clean clothes and got a shower. I went over to my bed and grabbed the letter. I sat on the bed and read it. It was from Abe, telling me that we were going on a shopping trip on Saturday. Abe, Damon and all of their guardians were going which meant I was free to shop with Lissa, Christian, and Adrian. Well at least there's something fun to look forward to. I set the note aside and crawled under my covers. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was woken up the next morning by someone knocking loudly on my door. I got up out of bed, and walked over to my door. I unlocked it and pulled it open. Nathaniel was on the other side.

"What do you want Nate?" I said pushing my hand through my hair.

"You have twenty minutes before classes start."

"What?" I said looking at my alarm clock. Yep twenty minutes before classes start. "Shit I forgot to set my alarm. I'm so sorry that I missed practice." I said going over to my closet to get my clothes.

"Don't worry about practice I gave you the day off and that was ok with Alberta. Here I got you this from the cafeteria; I knew you wouldn't have time to get breakfast too." He said handing me a bag, I looked in the bag and almost screamed. He got me chocolate glazed; I took one out and put it into my mouth.

"Thanks for the doughnuts they are my favorite."

"I know Lissa told me in the café when I was trying to figure out what you liked to eat. I will see you later, you need to eat and get ready." He walked away and I closed the door. I ate the last of my doughnuts in minutes. I went into the bathroom, took a quick shower and got dressed. I ran to my classed and made it in time with a minute to spare. I sat down in my chair breathing heavily, Eddie decided to his usual self.

"So Hathaway what's got you so out of breath, doing a lot of extracurricular activities or was someone keeping you busy?" He snickered with a sly grin on his face, and out came my usual charm.

"Well it sure as hell wasn't you keeping me busy!" I flashed my signature man-eater smile and he choked out his next words.

"Please tell me that was a joke." He went pale thinking I was serious, which caused me to laugh. Alek was standing in the back with Dimitri and the rest of the guardians that were overseeing the class. Alek was shaking his head back and forth trying not to laugh, while Dimitri on the other hand looked like a statue.

"Yes Castle that was a joke; I forgot to set my alarm last night and I overslept, so I ran here from my dorm. It took me only two minutes to get here." He chuckled.

"Damn girl you can run and fight!" He bowed to me, making me laugh.

"Knock it off Castle."

"Yes, Hathaway."

The day passed in a blur, after dinner I went with Lissa to her room. She locked us into her room and we sat on the bed. We talked about what was going on with Dimitri, she told me that it did sound like the work of compulsion. We couldn't come up with a reason for Tasha to be using compulsion on him. Unless she wanted him to take her offer and be more than friends by forcing him into it. She told me she was sorry that this was happening to me and that she would keep an eye on the two of them. It was close to curfew so we hugged and I left. I walked to my dorm, passing a few students and a few guardians. I went to my room and make sure my alarm was set before passing out on my bed.

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><p><em>Thanks<em>

_Shannon_


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks for all the reviews, it keeps me going. Here's the next chapter hope you like it. It took me awhile to think of how i was going to start this chapter._

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><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

The next few days went by with no issues. Training was fun as usual; I fought six guardians at a time. They were normally Abe and Damon's guardians but school guardians took turns to give me some challenge. I was no longer holding back and neither were the guardians so we'd end up walking around with some wicked bruises. Lissa kept healing the really bad ones including broken bones.

I was sitting on Adrian's bed with Lissa, while Adrian sat on his couch. We were just talking and hanging out plus we were waiting for Christian to get here so we could start the games. It was Friday night so we planned on having a game night like we normally do. Saturday's tomorrow so we are having a little fun before the big shopping trip, since we found out through Christian that Tasha and Dimitri are going too. Christian was clueless about Dimitri and Tasha and about the fact that Tasha was using compulsion on him. We decided to keep Christian in the dark because he would probably choose to take his aunt's side.

Lissa and Adrian were fuming about them tagging along on the shopping trip. They were trying to figure out how to make Dimitri jealous. Lissa suggested that I hang out with Nate the whole day, but Adrian didn't like that idea. Both Lissa and I gave Adrian a funny look.

_Rose is something going on between you and Adrian._ She asked through the bond while looking at me. I just shrugged my shoulders and looked at Adrian who had a slight blush to his cheeks. Lissa saw him blush and spoke through the bond again. _Maybe you should go out with Adrian._ She sounded extremely excited, and she looked at Adrian with a sly grin. Adrian looked at Lissa then at me then back to Lissa.

"Ok what is going on?" Adrian spoke with confusion lacing his words.

"Absolutely nothing." I stated and shot Lissa a dangerous look, but of course she had to say it anyway.

"Adrian you should pretend to go out with Rose." Both our jaws dropped, god she knows Adrian wants to go out with me for real and she had to say pretend. Adrian tried to speak but nothing came out. "Or you don't have to pretend, it's up to you two." I groaned this was not good. Adrian now had the sly grin on his face as he looked at me.

"Why must you two do this to me." I whined this was so not fair.

"Because we love you!" They both said at the same time causing me to groan again.

"You guys suck you know that right."

"Rose will you go out with me?" Adrian asked with hope in his eyes.

"Can I have some time to think about it?" The hope in Adrian's eyes dimmed. So I elaborated my answer. "I only broke up with him Monday, besides how would it seem if I start dating you less than a week after?" The hope returned which made his eyes bright.

"Rose he cheated on you, you have the right to move on and making him a little jealous alone the way then he can get over it. He deserves to be tortured!" Lissa said the last part darkly, and I knew it was the darkness that Lissa was holding from me.

"Who deserves to be tortured?" Christian asked walking in the door. I couldn't help myself I had to say it.

"You do, for being late!" I said in a serious tone. Christian went so pale that he looked like a corpse, and he froze in his place. The horrified look on his face caused all three of us to explode into a fit of laughter. Christian stood completely still, and we continued to laugh. Lissa was the first to recover only after Lissa and I fell off the bed. Adrian laughed hard coming over and helped Lissa up and then helping me up. "God Christian it was a joke, you should have seen your face." I said in between my laughter.

"Not funny." Christian said as he went over to Lissa.

"Yes it was!" All three of us said. Christian gave Lissa a quick kiss and a hug.

"So what game are we going to play first?" Adrian said pulling out one of his clove cigarettes. He lit it up and took a drag as he grabbed an ashtray. We sat on the floor in a circle but it was more like a square since there were only four of us.

"Hey Sparky, where's Eddie?"

"He said he couldn't make it."

"Ok looks like it's just the four of us! So what game?" Everyone took a few minutes to think then Lissa squealed.

"Spin the bottle!" I grabbed my half empty water bottle off the desk and chugged what was left in the bottle. I put the cap back on and set the bottle on the floor. Lissa grabbed the bottle and spun it and it landed on Adrian. Both Lissa and Adrian looked horrified, while Christian was glaring at Adrian. If looks could kill Adrian would be dead. Lissa quick pecked Adrian on the lips while Christian glared. Adrian spun the bottle and both guys paled, it had landed on Christian. They stayed where they were just frozen in place; finally they moved they quickly kissed. Then they took turns rinsing their mouths out. This caused both Lissa and I to laugh. When they returned Christian spun the bottle and it landed on me.

"Great I had to kiss Adrian now I have to kiss Rose, this really sucks." Christian grumbled and I groaned. He quickly pecked me on the lips, then he wiped him mouth with the back of his hand. I spun the bottle and it landed on Lissa, we both leaned forward and kissed. Both Christian and Adrian started drooling so we kissed for a few more seconds. Then laughed at their shocked expressions, it was completely priceless.

"That was fucking hot!" They said at the same time. We didn't say anything as Lissa spun the bottle again. This time the bottle landed on Christian, so they made out for like five minutes. Adrian and I cleared our throats at the same time which cause Lissa and Christian to jump. They looked at us and blinked, like they completely forgot we were here. Lissa whispered sorry and Christian spun the bottle, it landed on Adrian again. We didn't make them kiss since they already did. Adrian spun the bottle and it landed on me, Lissa looked happy and Christian didn't seem to notice.

Both Adrian and I leaned forward and we gave a quick kiss. When we pulled away we both had shocked expressions on our face. When our lips touched electricity traveled through us, it wasn't as strong as it is when I kissed Dimitri but it was pretty damn close. Lissa noticed our reaction and told me through the bond that I was going to have to explain what happened. I gave a slight nod, and she asked what game we were going to play next so Christian would still be oblivious to what happened.

"We'll be right back!" Lissa said as she dragged up to the kitchen in the guest housing dorm. We walked into the kitchen and was glad that it was empty. We flipped on the lights and went to grab a few bags of popcorn and some sodas. As we got the popcorn out Lissa whispered to me. "What happened between you and Adrian?"

"It was like when I kissed you know who, but with Adrian it wasn't as strong." Lissa looked at me shocked.

"How is that possible?"

"I don't have a clue Lissa, we can figure this out later but we have to get back with the food and drinks. Plus no one needs to know this." I whispered back and grabbed the sodas. As Lissa and I were heading out of the kitchen after turning off the lights and ran right into Damon and Nathaniel. Both Lissa and I lost our balance but both Damon and Nathaniel held us upright.

"You guys ok?" Nathaniel asked.

"Yes, sorry for running into you guys." I said sincerely.

"Well try not to run into anyone else." Damon said as they started to walk away. We walked back to Adrian's room without seeing a single person in the hallways. We walked into the room and started putting the popcorn in the microwave. Adrian was looking at me with wonder in his eyes. Lissa went to go look for Christian since he had to go to his room and get a movie for us to watch. Which left Adrian alone with me in his room; I turned to the microwave as it beeped. I poured the popcorn into one of the bowls. Just as Adrian slipped one of his arms around my waist he leaned forward and whispered into my ear.

"Put the next bag in the microwave, start it, then turn around." His voice was husky and it sounded so good. I did what he told me to do and turned around. Coming face to face with a very sexy Adrian. "We need to talk about what happened!" God he was close really close, my pulse quickened.

"Would you like to talk now." I swallowed as his smell grew more potent the closer he got. He nodded his head telling me to go on. "I honestly don't know, that's what happened when I used to kiss _him_. It has never happened with anyone else until I kissed you." I whispered to him.

All of a sudden his lips were on my and he was pushing me against the counter. The electricity got stronger than before. He pulled away and looked at me touching his fingers to his lips. He put his hand back down to his side and watched as I licked my lips. He kissed me again and ran his tongue across my lips. This caused me to open my mouth allowing him entrance, which he took eagerly. A small moan escaped from me and he deepened the kiss. He pulled me closer to his body and his warmth was shocking. I laced my hand in his messy hair, while his arm that was still on my waist tightened the other one cupped my butt. My other arm went around his neck. The more we kissed and the more our tongues danced together the more the electrical sensation intensified. He pulled away and gave me a seductive smile.

"So Rose will you go out with me for real?" I kissed his lips lightly and whispered against his lips.

"Yes, Adrian I'll go out with you for real!" This caused us to have another tongue war. It was getting really hot and heavy. All of a sudden the door flew open, which caused us to turn our heads to the door. And there standing in the doorway was…

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><p><em>Oh who could it be? I know but you guys need to wait for the next chapter! Please Review.<em>

_Thanks_

_Shannon_


	9. Chapter 9

_Hope you like the new chapter. Thanks for all the support._

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><p><strong>Chapter Nine<strong>

And there standing in the doorway was… Lissa.

"Well I see you forgot to make the rest of the popcorn. Oh by the way I was pulled into your head for that little make out session, it's a good thing I walked in when I did otherwise it might have gone further. Plus Christian will be here in like two minutes."

"You were in my head!" I blurted out, while Adrian and I were blushing badly.

"How do you get out when you don't want to see what's going on?"

"It takes practice I'll help you later ok." Adrian let go of me and leaned against the counter, he was beet red. I turned to the microwave took out the bag poured it into the bowls, and put the last bag in. Adrian lit up one of his cigarettes; I asked if I could have one. He looked at me funny and handed me one. I stuck it in between my lips and he lit it for me. I've smoked before so it didn't bother me and it actually helped calm my nerves. Lissa looked at me standing next to Adrian and had a huge grin plastered on her face. The last bag finished popping and I poured it into the bowls.

"Since when does Rose smoke?" Christian asked walking in the door. He closed the door and handed Lissa the movie.

"Since she started dating Adrian!" She laughed and then realized what she said. "Crap, sorry Rose."

"Wait your cheating on Dimitri." Christian asked confused.

"No I'm not it's over between us, since I caught him cheating." I stated bluntly. I tensed up; I did not need to be accused of cheating. Adrian saw me tense and he put his arm protectively around my waist.

"He cheated on you when, and I'll light the sleazy slut on fire!" My throat closed, I couldn't answer him. I was thankful that Adrian spoke up.

"She caught him cheating Monday, doing it with the so called sleazy slut on the gym floor. By the way the person you want to light on fire is your Aunt Tasha!" Adrian said it bluntly and Christian paled.

"Are you sure, she said that they were only friends." I finally found my voice and I spoke coldly.

"It was Tasha, she gave me a very smug look when I caught them having sex on the gym floor. Oh and she's also using compulsion on him." I said bitterly, and Christian paled even more.

I grabbed the bowls of popcorn while Adrian grabbed the sodas. Lissa was busy telling Christian about everything that happened. I handed Lissa a bowl of popcorn to share with Christian and Adrian sat their sodas on the coffee table that was in front of the couch they were going to sit on. I placed the popcorn for Adrian and I on the other coffee table and Adrian sat down the sodas. We sat down on the couches and talked a while more. When everything was explained to Christian, we put the movie on. Christian had brought the movie The 13th Warrior, with Antonio Banderas.

When the movie ended Lissa and Christian said their goodbyes and left. So I helped Adrian clean up the mess. When we were finished there was about half an hour left before curfew. I sat on the edge of his bed; he followed and sat next to me. We talked for a bite and he made sure I was ok. I didn't bother to lie to Adrian because he'd see it in my aura, so I told him the truth. I'd take it one day at a time, first thing is to get through the shopping trip. He told me that he'd stay with me the whole day if I wanted him to and that he'd leave if I would tell him to.

When I left I gave him a kiss and told him I'd see him tomorrow. I checked my phone and I had about five minutes to get to my room. So I started to jog, I was about halfway there when I heard someone come up beside me. I glanced to my right and saw Nathaniel jogging beside me.

"Can you talk for a few minutes?" He asked politely.

"It's almost past my curfew." I stated matter-of-factly.

"Relax, I'll cover for you. You can slow down too." I hadn't noticed how fast I really was going. I felt like someone was following me since I left Adrian's room.

"Sorry!" I let out a little laugh and he shook his head. "What do you want to talk about?"

"How things are going to work tomorrow. Since Guardian Belikov and Lady Ozera are going to be joining us tomorrow, I want you to be briefed on who's going to near guards and far guards." He kept explaining the plan. Alek, Ezra, Toby, Nik, and Stan were going to be the far guards. Apparently Alberta wanted at least to school guardians to go with since half of us were from the school. I would be off duty, but I would still act like a near guard. Dimitri, Lara, and Nathaniel were going to be near guards. He explained how things were going to work, while we walked to my dorm. Nathaniel covered for me so I didn't get into trouble for it being past curfew.

I went to my room, unlocked the door, walked in and closed the door. I grabbed close and took a quick shower. I set my alarm and crawled into bed. I was thinking about what happened between me and Adrian, so I didn't even know that I had fallen asleep. Until I was pulled into a spirit dream, I was on the beach in a black bikini. Adrian walked over to me and gave me a hug and a sweet kiss. The electrical current was between us in a spirit dream, not just in the real world.

We spent most of the night talking and then I made him actually get some sleep. Using his spirit powers would start taking a toll on him. I didn't need him being exhausted for the shopping trip. I ended up dreaming of nothing after the spirit dream ended. So when my alarm went off a few hours after I feel asleep we are going to be running on a human schedule so we didn't get much sleep. I shut off my alarm clock and crawled out of bed. I quickly washed my hair and tried to dry it. Just my luck the damn thing died, so I grabbed my cell phone and called Lissa. She answered on the first ring.

"Hey Rose what's up?"

"Lissa hair drier emergency, mine just died can I barrow yours?"

"Sure I'll be right over."

"Ok see you soon." I hung up the phone and waited. There was a knock on the door, I figure it was Lissa. Well I was wrong; I stared at the person in front of me holding Lissa's hair drier. I looked down and well I was in nothing but a towel. With a very surprised Adrian standing in front of me, so I quickly pulled him into my room and closed the door.

"What are you doing here?" I squealed grabbing my clothes and heading to the bathroom. I put my matching jade panties and bra on. I slipped into my jade green cameo (spaghetti strap) top that had a little lace at the top. I put on a pair of my black skinny jeans. I heard Adrian say that Lissa told him to drop off the hair drier because she had to go to the feeders before she got ready. I walked out of the bathroom and Adrian gasped. "May I please have the hair drier?" He swallowed which caused his adam's apple to bob up and down. He handed me the hair drier and I walked back into the bathroom and plugged in the hair drier.

I dried my hair which took about 15 minutes. I walked out of the bathroom brushing my hair; I asked Adrian if I should have my hair up or down. He looked like he was drooling; he finally collected himself and said up. He also said that if I needed to fight for some reason; it would be better up. I pulled my hair up into a neat high pony tail. I went over to my makeup kit and pulled a few things out and went to my mirror. I applied black eyeliner, jade green eye shadow which I blended in sage eye shadow towards my brows. Curled my lashes, added some black mascara, than I applied a pale pink lipstick. My eye shadow helped bring out some green in my eyes and it also matched my outfit perfectly. The pale pink I thought would look weird with my tan but it didn't it looked simple and blended perfectly.

I walked over to my closet, and pulled out a box that Lissa had gotten me for dating emergencies. I took off the lid and pulled out the contents. I went over to my dresser and opened a drawer grabbed a pair of dress socks. I went over to the stuff I took out of box and sat down on my desk chair. I pulled on the socks and grabbed the black leather two inch heeled shin high boots. They were sexy and yet I could still fight in them if I had to.

Next came a red-black obsidian rose necklace. The rose was about the size of a half dollar and was surprisingly lighter than you'd expect. I clasped it together and the rose sat right above my cleavage. I had just enough cleavage showing to still be me, but it wasn't enough to make me look like a slut. I stood up and put on last item which was a black leather jacket; it wasn't as bulky as a biker jacket. It was light weight, flexible, and sexy as hell. I turned around and Adrian's jaw dropped.

"Ready to go?" He closed his mouth, nodded his head, and stood up. We headed out of my room with only a few minutes to go before we had to leave. We headed towards our group which hadn't noticed us approaching. I heard Lissa say. "I wonder how late they'll be, god knows Rose is always late." This made me smile.

"Lissa I am not always late, I can be on time if I want!" Everyone turned to us and…

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><p><em>Thanks for reading so far.<em>

_Shannon_


	10. Chapter 10

_Sorry it took me a while to update been a little busy. Here's the next chapter. Thanks for all of the reviews._

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><p><strong>Chapter Ten<strong>

Everyone turned to us and all the guys jaws dropped. Everyone one stunned speechless, Lissa laughed.

"Damn Rose you finally found the opportunity to wear the jacket, boots, and necklace. It looks better than I thought!"

_And Lissa it would have been nice to know that you were having Adrian drop off your hair drier. I thought it was you so I answered the door in a towel._ I said trying to send her the message through the bond. She had a shocked expression on her face, and then she composed herself and answered through the bond.

_Sorry Rose, I didn't think that you would be in a towel. How did you know you could communicate through the bond?_

_I didn't know it would work I just tried it, since last you said you were in my head._

_Oh ok._ Lissa said._ I can't believe that all the guy's jaws dropped, it looks so funny._

_I know well we better get them to stop. _Both Lissa and I laughed out loud. Lissa elbowed Christian, which seemed to sober him up. I walked up to Nate and Alek and pushed their mouths closed.

"You might want to close your mouths, you might catch bugs." I said walking to the vehicles. Lara smacked her brother in the back of the head causing him to whine. I ignored Dimitri and Tasha, as best as possible. Alberta was there and she elbowed stand just like Lissa did to Christian. She told us that she was going alone as well. We started filing in the SUV's and Nate got onto his bike. (A black and silver Yamaha r6.) We left the school and drove for a few hours. I dosed off in the car leaning against Adrian's shoulder.

The next thing I know I was pulled into a spirit dream. Adrian was standing in front of me with a huge smirk on his face. He looked really sexy standing there. His hair was styled in the messy way it always is. We were on the beach again but this time I was in a jade green bikini. He had on jade green board shorts and his chest was bare. For a Moroi he was muscular, his chest was smooth, and he had six pack abs. I was staring and it caused him to chuckle.

"See something you like Rose?" He said in a very seductive voice as he stepped closer to me. I couldn't help myself; I licked my lips and nodded my head. "Good because I definitely like what I see. The outfit you have on in the real world makes you look drop dead gorgeous and every guy was drooling over you. Well at least Damon and Abe weren't." He chuckled again. "By the way Dimitri is so jealous of you sleeping on my shoulder, he looked like he was ready to explode." This caused me to laugh. Dimitri, Tasha, Christian and Lissa were in SUV with Adrian and I. Damon and Abe were in one with Alek, Nik, Lara, and Toby. Alberta and Stan were in the other one. That one was going to be use to haul the stuff we were going to buy.

"Well he lost me, and if you think that was bad he's going to have an aneurism when he finds out that I'm with you." (Aneurism is a blood vessel that busts.) I closed the distance between us and kissed him. A few minutes later we both woke up as we were pulling into the parking lot. Everyone got out of the vehicles and got into the groups, Dimitri glanced at me noticing that I was with Adrian. He did not look remotely happy, he slid his guardian mask. Adrian looked at him and turned back to me. Then Alek came up to me and said.

"I know you're not guarding but I want you to be prepared." He tried giving me his spare stake, which I wouldn't accept. He was getting ready to argue with me, when I move my jacket and showed him my stake on the inside pocket.

"Already got it covered!" I stated and Abe chuckled and Alek shook his head. We split up to where we were supposed to be and Alberta was assigned to be a near guard, so it was more even. We talked as we walked from shop to shop, the whole time though I was scanning the mall for any threats. As we walked I kept getting stared at and kept getting cat calls from every guy in the damn place. While their girlfriends kept glaring at me, this seemed to amuse Adrian. He chuckled a little when I glared at him, he shut up. Everyone in our group except the far guards and Dimitri laughed. Adrian said sorry and Christian wrapped his arm around Lissa's waist because she was also getting cat calls.

Nathaniel pretended to be going out with Lara because some asshole kept trying to hit on her, so Nate put his arm around her waist. Lissa looked over at me and she could tell I was getting pissed because some guy was following me. Adrian grabbed my hand and held it. He was trying to calm me down; no doubt he saw the darkness in my aura. We were walking past the food court to go to a few more shops before we got lunch when the idiot that was following me came up to me. He started hitting on me and I could tell Adrian was getting ticked off. I told the guy multiple times to go away or leave me alone and he didn't listen.

Adrian had the last straw when the jerk decided to grab my ass. I didn't even have time to react; Adrian clocked him right in the face. There was a crunch as Adrian's fist connected with his nose. The guy's nose broke and he landed on his ass. Who know that Adrian was that strong, especially since he was a Moroi.

"Touch my girlfriend again and I'll break something else!" Adrian hissed at him in a low voice, so only the three of us could hear. The guy scrabbled off really fast and ran right out of the mall.

"Damn Adrian, you broke that guy's nose." I said in a stunned tone.

"He was warned, and didn't take the hint." He slid his arm around my shoulder and I slid my arm around his waist. Lissa smiled and everyone else stared. Dimitri had his guardian mask up but I could see right through it; he was extremely pissed. I smiled internally as we kept going from store to store. We stopped off at the food court and the near guards ate with the Moroi. When I was done I threw my trash out and walked over to Alek.

"Go get something to eat I'll cover your spot." I told him and he started to argue but I cut him off. "Не спорьте со мной. Вы голодны и как и все другие опекуны. Перейти есть к тому же он все-таки свет." (Don't argue with me. You're hungry and so are all the other guardians. Go eat besides it's still light out.)

"Fine." He said before gathering the far guards and going to go get some food. Abe walked over to me with a huge smirk on his face.

"Do you realize you're the only other person besides me that can boss Aleksandr around?" He chuckled when I just shrugged. Abe and I chatted for awhile until everyone was done eating. The whole time Dimitri seemed to be fuming. Tasha was blabbing about something that I couldn't here and Dimitri wasn't paying very much attention to her but she didn't seem to notice. We went back to the guarding positions we had been in earlier.

As we walked Adrian had his arm around me and I had my arm around him. We shopped for hours. Adrian mentioned about the dance next weekend, that is was a masquerade ball. We went from shop to shop looking for the perfect outfits. Lissa got a plan elegant floor length ballroom style dress that was a pale pink. We couldn't find the dress for me anywhere. Lissa and I went into The DEB, and were in there only two minutes when we found the perfect dress. The guys stayed outside the store, so no one knew what the dress looked like.

It was a red knee length strapless dress. It was a bright red but it was an amazing color that would go well with my tan. I tried it on and showed Lissa, and she pushed me back into the changing room. She told me that I was getting it and there was nothing I could do to stop it. When I came out of the changing room she grabbed the dress from me and all but ran to go pay for it. I told her we had to go to Hot Topic next which was a few stores down. We quickly looked through Hot Topic, and I found a nice leather corset, and black mesh strapless dress that was cut into strips at the bottom.

I bought them along with a section of red clip on hair. I kept the dress and corset a secret; I bought it while Lissa was trying on a pink mini skirt and a matching top. I put the dress and corset in the DEB bag underneath my red dress. I told them I were I was going to put the stuff, so they gave me a little bag for the hair piece. I walked over to the changing room and waited for Lissa. She stepped out to show me the outfit and I loved it. I told her she had to get the outfit and she went to go change. She bought the outfit.

We went to a shoe store and she made me get a pair of black five inch heel boots. While she bought a pair of pale metallic pink five inch strapped heels. We walked into a jewelry store and looked around. Lissa found a beautiful set of necklaces for the two of us. One necklace was a sun and one was a crescent moon. They fit together and symbolized friends forever. The charms and chains were made of silver. We couldn't afford them but I noticed Tasha watching us look at them. We left the jewelry store empty handed.

The girls broke apart from the group and headed to our last store. It was Victoria's Secret. Most of the guys turned beet red when Lissa and I blurted out that we had to go to that store. They stayed behind, as we went into the store. Lissa and I both got some new bras and panties and I got four tubes of my favorite lip gloss, since I've been out for about two weeks. Tasha got some stuff that made her look like a slut. Everyone paid for their stuff and we walked out of the mall.

We carried everything out into the parking lot. Something was wrong, I was being watched. I scanned around the parking lot as I put my bags in the SUV that Stan was driving earlier. Adrian saw we scanning the area, but didn't say anything. The guardians looked at me funny and were scanning the area. We needed to leave and leave now something bad was going to happen. It wasn't a Strigoi because I wasn't nauseous, not yet anyway. I was twitchy which was unusual for me. I touched the stake in my coat and Alek saw it.

"Rose what's going on, you're touching your stake?" He said instantly more alert than he usually was.

"Someone's watching me!" I whispered, trying not to alert my unseen stalker. The guardians started getting the Moroi into the vehicles. "Something's seriously wrong!" I stated when all of the Moroi and all of the guardians except for Alek, Alberta, Dimitri and Nate were in the cars. "We need to go now." I hissed out just as my early warning alarm went off and pulled out my stake.

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><p><em>Please Review<em>

_Thanks_

_Shannon_


	11. Chapter 11

_I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for the reviews, I like hearing what you guys think._

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><p><strong>Chapter Eleven<strong>

I barely had enough time to react as I was thrown against one of the SUV's. I quickly recovered as all the guardians outside the vehicles were in fights with multiple Strigoi. I staked the one that threw me fast because he was new. Alberta was about to be over powered, so I staked the one through his back that was about to kill her. I helped out with the rest of them by killing five out of the fifteen Strigoi by myself. When the last Strigoi was killed I pulled out my phone, and dialed a number.

I had a conversation with Sydney. She told me she was in the area, that she would come and dispose of the Strigoi bodies. I told her our exact location, and she told me she'd be there in twenty minutes. She also said she wanted me there to meet her. I explained to everyone that I was staying to meet with the alchemist. Alberta didn't want me to be alone waiting for Sydney so Damon told Nathaniel to stay with me. Adrian got out of the car, and I told him I'd be back after we got things cleaned up. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips and told me to be careful. Dimitri paled as he got into the SUV. Adrian got in and they all drove off to go back to the academy. Nathaniel asked the question I was waiting for.

"Why did I get nauseous just before the Strigoi attacked?" He didn't ask because no one knew he was shadow kissed from the school. Well except Adrian because he asked me about it. He read Nate's aura and Adrian said he just had to ask if Nathaniel was Shadow-Kissed. I couldn't lie so I told him the truth; he was shocked to hear that Damon was a spirit user.

"The nausea is pretty much like an early warning system telling you that Strigoi are nearby. Trust me it comes in handy a lot."

"Does it get easier to deal with?" He asked curiously.

"It really depends on you; I've been Shadow-Kissed a little over two years. The more Strigoi there are the stronger the nausea. The first time I got it I threw up although the ghosts giving me a migraine; didn't help." I wasn't expecting what he said next, it kind of threw me for a loop.

"Ghosts what ghosts?" I looked at him shocked. I explained to him everything I have learned about being Shadow-Kissed. I shared everything I knew and he shared what he knew. He said that he's only been Shadow-Kissed for about six months. When he first started guarding for Damon, they were ambushed by a few drunk humans. He was shot in the chest before the humans ran off. He died a few minutes later, luckily the bullet was a through and through. Damon was able to heal him right away without having to dig the bullet out.

We chatted for awhile waiting for Sydney to show up. She pulled up to us and got out of her jeep and got to work sprinkling her stuff on the bodies making them dissolve. After everything was cleaned up Sydney told us that she needed to go to St. Vlads to talk to the Head Guardian. So she could give a full report on the clean up. I thanked Sydney and told her to follow us.

Nate got on his bike and told me to hop on. He handed me the extra helmet that Alek handed him before they left. I put it on and held on to his waist as we sped off with Sydney behind us. When I touched him I had gotten an electric shock, but I ignored it. The faster Nate went the tighter I held on. I could have sworn that when I held on tighter he would go faster on purpose. It took us a few hours to get back to the academy but the hours blurred by just like the scenery.

We pulled up to the gate and they looked at Nate than at me than to Sydney behind us. I told them who she was and why she was here and all of us were allowed through the gate. We pulled up to the garages and were greeted by the group we went shopping with. I let go of Nate's waist when we stopped and got off. I took off the helmet and handed it to Nate then walked over to Sydney's jeep.

She hesitantly got out and we walked over to the group. I introduced her everyone but didn't have to tell the guardians who she was because they saw her golden Alchemist tattoo. Alberta, Stan and Dimitri gave me a funny look because I wasn't supposed to know about Alchemists until I graduate. I just ignored it while Alberta talked to Sydney. They talked for awhile than Alberta asked if Sydney was planning on staying awhile.

"I'll stay for a few days if that's ok with you, and the school." Sydney sounded extremely nervous.

"That is fine with us especially since you helped us with our earlier problem." Alberta seemed nervous too. (Am I the only one comfortable with an Alchemist around?) I wondered silently to myself. "I'll set you up with a room in the guest housing or the guardian housing." Sydney froze; I knew she wasn't comfortable with any other guardians and she definitely wasn't comfortable with Moroi. I spoke to make Sydney more comfortable.

"Sydney would you be more comfortable if you stayed with me?" Everyone looked at me as Sydney whispered yes. "Is that ok with you Guardian Petrov?"

"If that makes Sydney more comfortable than she can stay with you." Alberta was surprised that I offered to let an Alchemist stay with me and also for the fact that I used her formal name.

"Grab your stuff and we'll go to my room." I said before saying good night to everyone. Adrian walked over to me and pulled me into a huge hug and whispered into my ear. He said that he was thankful that I was ok but he asked if it was a good idea to let Sydney stay with me. I reassured him that everything was ok, and I gave him a good night kiss. Dimitri was still a little shocked since he found out that Adrian and I are actually dating, he first thought Adrian said it to get the creeps to stay away. He did not look happy at all, he get pissed when Tasha put her arm around his. She looked like a clingy tramp, and Christian looked disgusted.

I stepped away from everyone and grabbed my shopping bags out of the SUV. I yawned and said good night again and walked to my dorm room with Sydney by my side. We talked while we walked; it was past curfew so everyone was in their rooms. When we got to my room I unlocked it and walked in. I turned the light on and Sydney followed. For once my room was actually clean and my bed was made. I told Sydney that I was going to get a shower and she could have the bathroom after me. I grabbed my clothes and went into the bathroom.

I got a quick shower, got dressed, brushed my hair and brushed my teeth. When I was done I went back into the room. I told Sydney that she could have the bed and I'd take the couch. She tried to argue but I laid down on the couch, she gave up and grabbed clothes from her bag. I said good night to her as she was walking to the bathroom. I fell asleep pretty fast because I was exhausted. Adrian was nice enough to let me sleep in piece.

I woke up pretty early in the morning, and Sydney was still sleeping. I got dressed into a blood red spaghetti strapped shirt and black running shorts. I wrote Sydney a note in case she woke up while I was gone. I pulled my hair back into a pony tail, grabbed my I-pod and left the room. No one was around; it was Sunday morning so everyone was either still asleep or at the chapel. I went to that cafeteria and grabbed two water bottles and a chocolate doughnut. I ate the doughnut as I walked to the gym. I set my water bottles on the bleachers and went into the girl's locker room to wash my hands. When I was done I walked out of the locker room and walked through the gym. I walked outside and onto the track.

I put my head phones in and turned on the band My Darkest Days. I jogged for about a hundred laps. Alek saw me when I was on lap five; he decided to lean against the gym building and watch me do laps. I finally decided to do laps when both Alek and Nate came up beside me. I pulled my head phones out and picked up the pace. We were on about lap fifty when we started to get an audience. No doubt they heard about the fight at the mall. Guardians and students alike were watching us, we picked up the pace. We ran another fifty laps, which gave them a total of a hundred laps. It gave me a total of two hundred laps, I ignored the fact that people were watching us as I walked into the gym.

I grabbed my water bottles and drank one after the other. Alek and Nate did the same thing. Then they told me that I needed to go get cleaned up, get something to eat, then I needed to go to the guardians hall to get my molnija marks. I was walking to my dorm when I felt like I was being watched again. I scanned the area and didn't see anyone. I walked faster and got to my room, I locked the door as soon as I was in. Sydney asked what was wrong so I told her about the fact that I kept getting the feeling of being followed.

I grabbed a pair of skinny jeans, a black tank top, and a matching pair of panties and a bra. I got a shower and didn't bother drying my hair. I put it up with one of my hair clips. Sydney was dressed already so we left and went to the café. We grabbed some breakfast and when we were done I walked Sydney back to my room. I told her that I'd be back in a bit that I had to go get my molnija marks.

I was walking to the guardians hall when I had the feeling of being watched again. I was scanning the area around me that I wasn't even paying attention to where I was going and walked right into something. Well I should say someone, I had walked straight into a giant Russian wall. At least it was Alek and not Dimitri, I have been avoiding him like the plague. Alek took one look at me and said.

"Rose is everything alright?"

"No I'm not." I said getting irritated.

"What's wrong?" He said scanning the area like I had been doing a few minutes ago.

"I'm being followed, I can sense it but I don't see anyone."

"Are you sure you're being followed!" He said sounding concerned.

"I'm absolutely positive, someone is following me, this is the third day in a row that I've had this feeling."

"I'll have Abe assign us a schedule, so we can keep an eye on you. I know you're not lying, something has you on alert and we are going to find out."

"Ok, and thank you for believing me." At this point we were walking the rest of the way to the guardian's hall. While I had Alek alone I decided to ask him the question that was on my mind since they arrived. "Alek, what happened to Jesse?" He swallowed and looked a little pale as he told me the truth.

"He was turned about seven months again, Nathaniel is his replacement." He didn't say anything after that and neither did I; at least I knew what happened to him. We walked in a grim silence as we walked up to the hall. We walked into the building which was a giant room and was shocked to see who was there.

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><p><em>Please Review<em>

_Thanks_

_Shannon_


	12. Chapter 12

_Hope I answered some questions, more will come. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews._

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><p><strong>Chapter Twelve<strong>

Queen Tatiana was there with her guardians, my jaw almost dropped. Alek and I walked up to Alberta, Nate and Dimitri and took our seats. Moroi never really ever come to one of these ceremonies. Although some do when their guardian's are getting their marks. The Queen never went to them unless her guardians got their marks and she only went because she's Queen and needs to show support.

All the Moroi that were with us during the attack were sitting on the opposite side of us. Only Adrian was sitting with the Queen, but she's his Great Aunt so he was allowed to be there. Lissa looked over at me and smiled. She was proud of me and all of the other guardians. The Queen stood up and gave a speech. She said that she was extremely proud of us, and that she was grateful for us protecting the Moroi that we were with especially since most of the Moroi were Royal. She thanked us all for protecting Adrian. She said she was proud to hear how far I've come and she was shocked and amazed that I killed five Strigoi in the attack. Not to mention that I was the only novice in our history to receive so many marks before graduating.

We were each taking up one at a time to get our tattoos. They gave us each a molnija star for protecting so many Moroi next to it was tattooed the number of our kills and at Queen Tatiana's request we each got the Royal seal with her initials tattooed next to that. Letting other guardians and Moroi that we saved a family member of the Queen; it was rare for guardians to get that tattoo. Yet four guardians got and I got it and I was still only a novice. This was a great honor for all of us, especially me because I was on Tatiana's bad side.

When the ceremony was over one of the Queen's guardians came over to me and told me the Queen wanted to speak to me. I followed her guardian to one of the back offices in the hall while everyone was staring. I was led into the room and Queen Tatiana, was sitting in a chair behind an oak desk. She looked up and spoke in a nice tone.

"Rosemarie, it's nice to see that you came." She said politely.

"I would not refuse your request your Majesty." I stated just as polite as she did. I didn't want to disrespect her since I was dating her favorite Great Nephew.

"Well it looks like you've learned some manners, I'm impressed." She wasn't harsh when she spoke. (Maybe she doesn't know about Adrian and me.) I thought silently to myself.

"I've learned a lot, I've been trying my hardest to respect everyone."

"You've changed a lot since you first came back, you were very reckless. You've matured and you are already shaping into a great guardian." She complimented me.

"Thank you, your Majesty." She smiled at me.

"I do believe I was wrong about you Rose, I was extremely pissed when Adrian told me he was dating you. But you protected him when you're still a novice, and you've managed to stop him from continuing to ruin his reputation. He's changed since he met you, so I will not interfere with your relationship. I think it's doing him good, plus I've seen the look in his eyes when he talks about you. He seems to have fallen in love with you. I will only say this once if you hurt him you will regret it. Do I make myself clear?" I was shocked by what she had said.

"Yes your Majesty."

"Good, now back to more important matters. Adrian told me some disturbing news about Lady Ozera possibly using compulsion on a guardian."

"Yes your Majesty both Adrian, Lissa and I believe she is. We don't have any proof yet, but someone needs to know."

"Who's the guardian that you believe is under the compulsion?"

"Guardian Belikov, he's my mentor and he's completely changed since Lady Ozera got here."

"I'll be leaving the day after the masquerade ball; I'll have my guardians keep an eye on things. In the mean time; try to get proof or expose her to everyone. But try to avoid her using compulsion on you. If I ask you about the compulsion she's using and you act like not know anything about compulsion. I'll know she did something, but I want you to find proof ok, I'll be easier for me to do something if you bring me the proof." We talked awhile more and she told me to call her Tatiana. So I did when we were done she walked out of the room with me her guardians flanking us.

Everyone was still in the room talking and everyone went silence as we walked into the room. Tatiana told everyone to resume what they were doing. She also told me she wanted to see my spar with some of her guardians, to see exactly how good I am. We set up the time that we were going to spar. Then we went our separate ways. I walked over to Adrian, Lissa, and Christian. They were standing with Damon, Abe and their guardians. They all gave me a funny look and we started talking I told them that I need to talk to Alberta about me sparing with the Queen's guardians. They were shocked to hear that the Queen wanted to see me spar with her guardians.

We headed outside, as we were walking I felt like I was being followed again. I scanned the area and saw something move out of the corner of my eye and I took off towards it. Adrian called out my name but I kept running. Nate and Alek were chasing after me they barely kept up with me as I ran into the woods. I caught sight of the person that's been following me. I sped up to a full on run and tackled them to the ground. I turned the person over and was shocked that it was a Moroi woman.

"Why the fuck are you following me?" I shouted at her just as Nate and Alek came to a stop behind me. Alek gasped out Katherine, which bought my head around. The rest of the group had caught up to us. They were looking at me sitting on a Moroi woman. "Answer my question." I demanded the darkness started showing its ugly head.

"To warn you." She was pissing me off and Nathaniel knew it; he quickly pulled me off of the woman. I was fighting against his hold, and then I felt something cold on my finger. I instantly calmed down and looked at my hand. He had slipped his ring on my hand. There was a slight hot and cold sensation. He put his healing charm on me.

"Are you better now?" Nathaniel asked me in a serious tone.

"Yes, I'm calm now." I said telling the truth.

"Good." Was all he said before releasing me. I looked the woman in the eyes.

"Who are you and what are you trying to warn me about?"

"My name is Katherine Freed; I was Jesse Strunk's fiancée. I came here to try and talk to you while you're alone but you're a popular girl. Always around people any way I didn't mean to make it seem like I was stalking you, but it's extremely important. You're in an extreme amount of danger." She explained quickly.

"Why am I in danger and from what?" I said a little confused. She said one word that froze everyone with us except for Adrian, Lissa and Christian.

"Jesse." My heart skipped a beat and my world spun.

"But he's a Strigoi!" I stuttered out.

"He wants to turn you!" When I heard that everything went black.

**Alek POV**

Rose just took off towards the woods, she was chasing something. Nathaniel took off after her at the same time I did. Damn she was fast; we could barely keep up to her. Than we saw what she was chasing it was a person. Probably the one that has been following her the past few days; Rose sped up faster and tackled the person. She tackled the person and when we got close we stopped. I knew exactly who it was, and I could tell this would not be good. I gasped out her name, as Rose started demanding answers. I went stiff as I sensed Rose's mood change.

The group caught up to us and heard what was going on. Nathaniel must have noticed Rose's mood change because he pulled her off of Katherine and fought to keep his hold on her. I saw him slip a silver ring onto one of her fingers and she stopped trying to fight with him. A few words were exchanged and he let her go. Kat explained to Rose why she was following her. Then Kat shocked the hell out of all of us. Jesse was after Rose, he wanted to turn her.

**Nate's POV**

Everyone froze; Rose went as pale as a corpse as soon as Katherine told her that Jesse wanted to turn her Strigoi. The next thing I knew; I was holding an unconscious Rose in my arms. She passed out; I didn't even have time to think I just reacted. I ignored the electrical charge I felt while carrying her to the infirmary, thinking that it was all in my head. Adrian was walking with me and held the door to the infirmary as I walked in with Rose. The doctor told me where to put her; I explained to her that Rose passed out. Adrian had followed us into the room.

"Stay with her, I have to go back and help them figure out what to do." I had to him while heading to the door.

"Thank you." He said sincerely, there was no jealously in his voice or his eyes. I stopped at the door and turned to him.

"You're welcome and by the way if you hurt her in anyway especially if it's like what the last guy did to her I'll make sure you regret it." It wasn't a threat it was a promise, I felt like I needed to protect her.

"How do you know about Beli…? I mean the last guy?" He caught himself because if anyone other than the people that already knew, there'd be a lot of trouble.

"Rose told me and don't worry I won't tell, I don't really like the guy." Adrian laughed and sat down.

"You and me both. Fucking cradle robber; wish I was a fire user so I could light his ass on fire." He muttered under his breath, causing me to laugh.

"If you need any of us we'll be around ok." He nodded his head and looked at Rose. I walked out of the infirmary and back to where the group was.

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><p><em>Please Review<em>

_Thanks _

_Shannon_

_Oh Rose and Lissa know Sydney when they were living with Abe in Russia. I'll explain it later._


	13. Chapter 13

_I'm sorry it took me so long to update be busy. I hope you like it. I'll try to update soon. It took me awhile to figure out how to right this chapter._

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><p><strong>Chapter Thirteen<strong>

I woke up in the infirmary with Adrian holding my hand.

"Hey Adrian." I whispered since my head was throbbing.

"Rose, God are you ok, you scared the living daylights out of me? Your aura was flickering; please tell me you're ok." Adrian begged with pleading eyes.

"I'm find but my head hurts." I told him while trying to sit up. Which only made my head spin; he steadied me as the doctor came in. Dr. Olendzki came over to me and quickly examined me; she said I was fine and that I could leave whenever I wanted to. She told me that I was only unconscious for a few minutes and that Guardian Harper brought me to the infirmary. I sat in the room with Adrian for a few minutes until I felt the room stop spinning. He held my hand as we walked out of the infirmary and walked upon one hell of a scene.

Dimitri had Nathaniel pinned against the building; holding him up by the throat. It looked like Dimitri was interrogating Nate. My pulse spiked and my heart beat picked up. I slipped the healing charm off my finger and handed it to Adrian; I told him to stay where he was that I didn't want him to get hurt. Surprisingly he listened to me; he was also listening to the exchange going on between Dimitri and Nate. I checked on Lissa's mind and pulled all the darkness from her it was like a black oozing ball. As it went into me I began to feel sick and I started to shake. I walked over to them and I was fuming.

"What the fuck are you doing Belikov?" I hissed out barely recognizing my own voice, it was like a snake bite. My voice had so much venom in it that both Dimitri and Nate looked at me. Dimitri's had snapped back so fast I was surprised that he didn't snap his neck. Both their eyes went wide, and Dimitri honestly looked scared. He looked like he was ready to piss himself, but he didn't answer me. Nate couldn't answer me because Dimitri still had his hand wrapped tightly around his throat. This pissed me off even more I had no control anymore. "I said what the fuck are you doing Belikov?" I said; grabbing his wrist extremely hard. He hissed in pain and let go of Nathaniel's throat. His fear heightened when he say my eyes.

"Roza your eyes!" He said questioningly as he tried to suppress his fear but it leaked out of him in waves. This caused me to laugh in a crazy way.

"What's wrong Belikov, are you afraid of me?" I laughed again. As he swallowed his adam's apple quivered. Behind him Nathaniel was trying to catch his breath the color slowly returning to his face. He looked at me, and he froze. (Huh I wonder what has them so freaked out about me.) My inner voice spoke, and I mentally shrugged. My head started to hurt; badly it felt like my skull was going to split in two. "Now are you going to answer my question?" Dimitri swallowed again and finally spoke.

"I saw him carry you into the infirmary; I was confronting him about you being unconscious. Did you hurt you during training?" A harsh laugh escaped my lips at hearing him act like his old self. He was worrying about me, which made me want to throw up. When I prove what Tasha has been doing, she's going to pay and he's going to look like a complete idiot.

"First off Guardian Belikov, Guardian Harper did not hurt me. Secondly I passed out because I just found out that a Strigoi is looking for me. Not only do I have a Strigoi stalking me he wants to turn me." His face lost all color and his body went ridged.

"Who's the Strigoi that's after you?" He stammered out and it was barely auditable.

"Jesse Strunk." I said in a grim tone. Dimitri went even paler, if that was even possible. Everyone knew Jesse Strunk by his reputation, he was in his early thirties but he killed around a hundred Strigoi since becoming a guardian. Suddenly I didn't feel too well; the throbbing in my head was getting worse. I looked over at Nate and saw his hands fly to his temples. Whatever was going on he felt it too and no one else does. Everyone that I was with earlier came walking towards us including Katherine. All of a sudden I saw something dark move out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and gasped out a name.

"Mason." Everyone turned to me and there were confused looks on their faces. He gave me a warning a disappeared. I grabbed my stake from my boot. "Get the Moroi inside now." That's all the guardians need they pushed the Moroi into the infirmary, as Dimitri called Alberta. They must have sounded the alarm because all the Moroi disappeared into the buildings and guardians started filing out of the buildings. Alberta came over to us and asked what the hell was going on because there were no Strigoi on the premise. I was just about to answer her when Queen Tatiana and her Guardians came over to us. She was just about to speak when I saw movement from the tree line.

I pushed Tatiana into one of her guardians as a plunged my stake into a Strigoi's chest. "Get her inside." I yelled as I another Strigoi lunged forward, trying to get to the Queen. Half of her guardians got her into the infirmary and the rest assisted the school guardians. All the guardians were engaged in fights with multiple Strigoi, so I was a little surprised when I ended up being surrounded by at least twenty Strigoi.

"The boss wants this one alive." Hissed out one of the Strigoi; as a few of them tried to grab me. I managed to dodge them and sent Strigoi flying into some of the others that were standing around them. "Get the bitch!" Another one yelled as I staked two of the advancing Strigoi. I took down all but one of the newly turned Strigoi that were attacking me, when I staked an older female Strigoi. This caused the newer one to go into a complete fit of rage; I managed to dodge his fangs but not the hidden knife that he jabbed into my stomach. The scream that came from me was ear slitting; hearing it come from me caused my hair to rise.

One of the Strigoi grabbed a hold of me and sank his fangs deep into my neck. The scream that tore its way out of my throat was way worse than the one I let out when I was stabbed. The Strigoi was ripped off of me in a blink of an eye. (I'm going to have to give a big thank you to the guardian that did that.) I thought to myself. I was hunched over with so much pain that I didn't even notice that all the Strigoi around me were dead on the ground within seconds. Cold arms wrapped around me and were holding me up. (Shit it wasn't a guardian, it's a Strigoi.) I screamed in my head.

I was close to death I could feel it, the pain was even numbing. But when this Strigoi sank his fangs into the other side of my neck, I only let out a strangled scream. All the guardians and even the Strigoi that were left froze and looked at me. The Strigoi started backing up away from the guardians. The Strigoi only drank from me for a few seconds then he jerked his head away; removing his fangs from my neck. I looked down at myself and saw why all the guardians looked sickened.

There was a six inch knife sticking out of my stomach, I looked up and my eyes met with Alberta's. I quickly pulled the knife out and hid it against my arm. (The handle in the palm of my hand with the dull end of the blade resting against the inside of my wrist and forearm, sharp end away from my skin.)The Strigoi that was holding me up spun me around, and I came face to face with a scary as hell looking Jesse. I inhaled a sharp breath when I saw his blood smeared mouth. He looked pissed beyond all belief, it honestly scared me.

"They weren't supposed to hurt you!" He hissed out as his grip tightened on my causing me to flinch. Of course he saw that and his grip loosened a little, but he still had a firm grip on me. He took one arm off of me and bit into his wrist. I got dizzy and lost my balance and started to fall backwards. Jesse's reflexes were so fast that the arm that was holding me up was around my waist in a blink of an eye. I was leaning backwards now, he looked at my face and his eyes changed. Instead of a bright red ring around the iris it was a dull rusty color. "You need to drink if you want to live." He stated matter-of-factly. He started to raise his arm to my mouth of course me being a smartass had to piss him off again.

"I'd rather die than be like you!" I hissed out and I spit in his face, causing his eyes to turn bright red again and he barred his fangs. His brought his face to mine and he tried to contain his anger. This didn't work since he tightened his hold on my waist causing bones to break.

"You little bitch I gave you a choice to change willingly, now I'm going to force you." He snarled bringing his wrist up to my face. He almost had his wrist to my mouth when I saw Mason over his shoulder.

"Mason… I need everyone's help!" I whispered loud enough for the ghosts to hear me. Jesse looked at me puzzled until he shrieked in pain. He accidently placed me on my feet giving me enough balance to use the knife. I swung my arm out and managed to slit his throat at the exact same time Mason was clawing at him. There was a look of terror on Jesse's face as he realized what had happened. I grabbed his hand and managed to pull off one of his rings I noticed earlier when his mood changed and tried to get me to drink his blood willingly. I jammed the knife into his chest, it of course wouldn't kill him it would only stun him. I looked around for my stake and didn't see it anywhere. He lunged for me trying to ignore the ghosts that were attacking him.

I was weak and afraid for my life so I let Lissa's darkness take over. My world blurred as the darkness took over; I suddenly pulled the knife out of his chest. I was slicing at his throat as I heard two high pitched screams. I couldn't tell where or who they were coming from; for all I knew one of them could be coming from me. I slashed both sides of his neck and the darkness was fueling me to keep going. He went for my neck again but I dodged his attack, and he almost landed on his face. He got back up and if looks could kill I'd be six feet under, multiple times.

My strength was fading fast even though the darkness was coursing through me. I fully gave into the darkness, supercharging me like I was a battery at a power source. Suddenly I felt the darkness explode from me and it went towards the Strigoi. All of them that were left that retreated behind Jesse were thrown backwards. They flew backwards at least twenty feet. I looked down at Jesse and spoke in a sadistic tone.

"Leave and I won't kill you, until the next time we meet." He looked extremely scared his fear rolling off in waves which made me laugh harshly. I felt another burst of energy leave my body as I heard gasps from every one that was witnessing what was happening. The Strigoi went flying again. "Mason and the rest of you, chase them outside the wards as far as you can." The ghosts followed my order and started clawing at them with extra force. I swayed as the darkness was leaving me, the ghost were chasing them out of the wards. As soon as they crossed the wards the darkness evaporated, my strength was gone. Causing me to crumple to the ground in a heap; the last thing I heard was people calling my name. Everything went dark as I felt hands touch me. I felt the hot and cold sensation that comes with spirits healing. I felt better but I couldn't wake up, I tried using the bond but I couldn't get through to Lissa. I was blocked.

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><p><em>Please review.<em>

_Thanks._

_Shannon_


	14. Chapter 14

_Hey guys sorry it took me so long to update, my computer crashed and I lost this chapter. I was so bummed out and had a serious case of writers block when I tried to redo it. I hope you guys like it and thanks for all the great reviews. I promise i'll try to update soon._

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><p>I woke up two days later in the infirmary but I wasn't surprised that I wasn't alone. What surprised me was the fact that the giant Russian that was in the room was asleep. I tried to stifle a laugh but it slipped out between my lips. My laugh caused Alek to nearly jump out of his skin and into a fighting stance. I laughed again which caused Alek to snap out of it. He smiled at me.<p>

"You're awake finally, you've had everyone worried." He casually walked over to me. "Your father has us taking shifts to watch over you." He looked at me. "How are you feeling?"

"Sorry for worrying everyone, I wasn't expecting there to be so many of them." My face turned grim. "I wasn't expecting Jesse to show up either." I shuttered at the memory of what happened. "I'm actually feeling great, considering what happened. You made me laugh though; I wasn't excepting to see you sleeping."I let out a small chuckle. I didn't ever see him asleep even when Lissa and I were in Russia; it was actually surprising to see him as relaxed as he was. But I knew he wasn't as relaxed as he could have been since the chairs in the infirmary were uncomfortable.

"You almost gave Alberta and Lissa a heart attack." He said in a grave tone. "I've never once seen Guardian Petrov loss herself like that, she was completely distraught." Alberta has taken care of me since I started coming to this school she's been like my adoptive mother. "You might want to see them before we go into a Guardian meeting, also you'll want to see Lord Ivashkov, I finally made him go to his room to get some sleep. He hasn't left your side up until about four hours ago." He lightly placed his hand on my shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay, I'll be back I'm going to go get the doctor." He then left and was back in a few minutes.

He came back with Dr. Olendzki. She quickly did a physical to make sure that I was okay. She asked me some routine questions like my full name, my birthday, who my best friend was. Once she was satisfied she took out the IV's and told me that she didn't want to see me back here any time soon. I thanked her for everything and both Alek and I left the infirmary. He escorted me to my dorm room. He stood outside my door in the hallway. He was going to call Alberta to get Lissa and Adrian so they could meet us in one of the conference rooms.

I left Alek in the hallway and went to go to my dresser. Suddenly Sydney threw her arms around me, giving me a huge hug. She said that she was glad that I was okay and that she was going to the Guardian's meeting. She said that she had to finish getting ready so I let her finish. I walked over to my dresser and grabbed my clothing. I quickly made my way into my bathroom and took a hot shower. When I finished I got out and dressed in black dress pants and a white blouse. I put on black flats and blow dried my hair. I put my hair back into a high ponytail, and put on some light make up.

There was a knock on my door and I let Alek in. He placed a tray of food onto my desk. I quickly went over to my desk and sat down. He knew I was hungry so the tray was packed. I tossed him one of the two apples that were on my tray and then I began to eat. I was finished in about fifteen minutes. Alek took the tray and had Nik take it to the cafeteria to dispose of it when we passed him in the halls. He talked with me for a bit then said he'd see me at the meeting.

Alek lead me to the conference room and when we walked in. I was mobbed by both Lissa and Adrian. Once they released me Alberta engulfed me into a huge hug. We spent an hour talking. They said they couldn't believe what had happened during the attack. They also wanted to know how I had already begun to heal before Lissa healed me. I told them that I would explain it at the meeting since Alberta informed us that they would be attending it along with her Majesty the Queen.

The five of us headed to the meeting which was starting in twenty minutes. We walked across the campus to the Guardian's Hall. When we got to the entrance doors two Guardians opened them and followed us in. The five of us went over to the back wall and leaned against it. All the Guardians were now looking at us, but their attention swiftly turned towards the doorway we just walked through. Queen Tatiana and her Guardians entered the room. All the Guardians stood and waited to sit after the Queen took her seat.

Half an hour later I was the one to get bombarded by questions. I answered all of them the best as I could. I explained how I knew Abe and Damon, but not that they were my family. I just told them that Lissa and I stayed with them while we were in Russia when we ran away. Someone asked how I knew Sydney, so I told them. I ended up helping Sydney out when her alchemist team was ambushed by a small group of Strigoi. Alberta ended up asking the question I was waiting for someone to ask.

"Rose, when we reached you after you collapsed why was your wounds already beginning to heal?" Alberta asked and I watched everyone in the room looked at me with questioning eyes. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat. I removed the ring that was still on my finger and set it on the table in front of Alberta.

"Jesse's working for a Spirit User!" I deadpanned. There was a bunch of collective arguing which was cut off as Tatiana spoke to me.

"Rose how do you know he's working with a Spirit User?" He voice echoed throughout the room.

"This ring is a healing charm, your Majesty. Only a Spirit User can do those kinds of charms. I noticed that Jesse was wearing a lot of silver and that his mood shifted. He almost seemed like his old self. When I pissed him off his mood changed back to how Strigoi normally act, cold, heartless, cruel, and wanting to kill. I managed to get that ring off of his finger before I had that last round of Darkness overload. Well I'm assuming that's what happened." I said bowing my head in respect when I was done talking.

I ended up doing more explaining during the meeting. Finally the meeting was over and the Guardian's split into teams. Some went to see how the Strigoi managed to get through the wards, some ended up going to make calls to other academies and other Guardians to see if they could get some leads on this unknown Spirit User. The rest of them went make to their classrooms or their shifts around the grounds. Before Lissa left to go back to class she told me that Tasha was looking for me.

I hugged her then she left. I ended up talking to Adrian for a bit longer before kissing me good bye. I went back to my room by myself since Alek and the rest of my father's and brother's Guardians were trying to get information. When I got there Sydney was packing her stuff up. I helped her finish packing and walked with her to her jeep. We hugged good bye and she told me to call if I needed anything. I waved good bye as she pulled out of the Academy.

Once she was out of sight I turned to head back to my dorm room. Alberta gave me today off since there was only a few classes left of the day. I was almost to my dorm when Tasha found me. I prayed that she wouldn't start anything, since I was not in the mood.

"Rose I'm glad I found you and I'm glad you're okay! You gave everyone a scare." She was acting all concerned which was pissing me off. "I got you something for the dance this weekend, Lissa and the other's got theirs already." She said handing me a small box. I carefully opened the box and gasped as I saw the silver necklace. The charm was in the shape of a rose and it had my name engraved on it. I gently lifted it from the box to look at it better. "Here let me help you put it on." Tasha said smiling at me. I handed her the necklace and turned around. She placed it around my neck and clasped it. "All done, Rose." I looked down and placed my hand on it as I turned around.

"Thank you it's beautiful!" I said to her smiling.

"You're very welcome, I'll see you later Rose. I have to go, I'm helping out with the idea's for decorations and the set up of the ball." She smiled at me but I caught a glimpse of mischief in her eye's that made me feel uncomfortable. She turned and left, so I headed back to my dorm room.

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><p><em>Please Review and thank you for being so patient with me.<em>

_Shannon_


	15. Chapter 15

_First off let me say this **9/11/01 WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED!**_

_Sorry it took me so long to upload this chapter. I've been extremely busy, and having major computer issues. Hopefully I will have a new one in the next two weeks but who knows. _

_Thank you to everyone that reviewed. I actually wrote and rewrote this chapter multiple times trying to figure out what to do with this; it didn't seem right._

_ A special thanks to **shadow-kissed angel**, I hope this chapter shows the emotion you wanted to see. I had skipped over her feelings about what happened to attempt to make Rose seem stronger. Like the type of girl that breaks down when she's alone then when she's around others she acts like everything's not on a downward spiral._

_Enough of my babble here's the long over due chapter which just happens to be over 2,300 words.  
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><p>I got back to my dorm room and plopped down on my bed. I was so exhausted that as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out. I ended up dreaming that Lissa and I were back in Russia, back when we had run away. I groaned when a steady knocking sounded on my door. I felt groggy and just wanted to go back to bed. I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes but the knocking continued. I groaned again and got out of bed. I stumbled over to the door, opening it quickly to stop the knocking. "Ugh… What do you want Nate?" I said as I ran a hand over my hair. My pony tail had come undone, so my hair was a mess.<p>

"Rose it's almost dinner time and Abe and Damon would like you to join them." He said with a chuckle. He only stopped when I glared at him. "Go get dressed and fix your hair. It's sticking up on the side." He smirked as he closed the door in my face. I groaned and ran to the mirror; I stared at myself in horror. It looked like I stuck my finger in an electric socket. My hair was everywhere and at some places it was sticking straight up. _I can't believe anyone saw me like that._ I thought to myself, slightly disturbed.

I let out a heavy sigh as I grabbed fresh clothing. I headed into my bathroom to change. I removed my formal clothing and changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a tight black t-shirt. I spent the next few minutes fixing my hair, it finally decided to behave so I went to my bed. I grabbed my boots along the way. Once I was sitting I put on my boots; I slipped my stake into the belt of my pants. I stood up and walked over to my door. I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway closing the door behind me. Nate was leaning up against the wall next to my door looking way too relaxed.

"Looks like you're neglecting your job, Harper!" I smirked as I walked by him; I glanced behind me and saw him push himself off of the wall. I looked straight forward and continued to walk.

"My job at the moment is to make sure you get to the cafeteria in one piece." He stated with a slight chuckle. I ignored the gossiping Dhampir's and Moroi girls that were staring at us. _That is weird!_ I thought to myself as I continued to walk with Nate walking by my side. Nate glanced at me before asking the question that was bugging both of us. "What is with all of the gossip?"

"I was wondering the same thing, they weren't like this earlier." I stated matter-of-factly.

"There was a little gossiping going on when I came to get you but now it has tripled." He stated bluntly. I rolled my eyes I'm sure that Lissa will tell me what's going on later. We walked to the cafeteria in silence after that. The gossip and the looks I was getting were starting to irritate me, but I ignored it. When we walked into the café everyone went silent which caused both of us to glance at each other. We continued walking through the café as the whispers started up. I was starting to get pissed off so I walked in front of Nate. On the other side of the café I saw Nik standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. I walked over to him keeping my pace steady.

"Hey Nik, do you have any idea about what's going on with all the gossip?" I said trying to keep calm and not let my irritation show through but I failed.

"Probably has something to do with the meeting Abe and Damon have requested, your presence for." He shrugged at me, since he wasn't one for gossip. He uncrossed his arms and motioned for me to follow him. He led me through the guest's cafeteria to the table that my father and brother were sitting with their Guardians.

I took my seat as the rest of the Guardians sat down. We had light conversation throughout our meal, closer towards the end of it Damon asked me an important question. One that could change my future as a Guardian, I told him I'd have to think then give him the answer. He agreed with a smile as we finished dinner. Afterwards Nate and I headed to the gym for some training. We sparred for awhile before we returned to our own rooms.

**Day of the Dance**

I bolted up in my bed, with tears streaming down my face. My breathing was ragged and I felt like I was drowning. I was shaking and it wasn't just because of the cold sweat that was covering my body. I let out a few uncontrollable sobs as I stumbled out of bed. I tripped and almost fell on my face as I made my way to the bathroom. I closed the door and locked it before heading over to the toilet. I threw the lid up just in time as I started to throw up. I had kept my grief bottled up for far too long. The dam broke and my emotions flooded out.

The scene that I walked in on when I caught Dimitri cheating was playing through my head. My dream had morphed into the living hell that I had been trying to hide from. My heart had been ripped out of my chest that day. But I had been ignoring the pain and tried to keep strong. The stress of all the gossip that was going around the academy was smothering me. The gossip got even worse after I had dinner with Abe and Damon.

I continued to sob as I emptied my stomach completely. After my stomach was empty I started dry heaving. When I finally knew that nothing else was going to come out I staggered over to the shower. I turned the hot water on and just stepped into the spray. The heat of the water seared my skin where my clothes didn't cover it. I didn't care that I was wearing my sleeping clothes since they were soaked with sweat anyway. I stifled a heart retching scream as I slid down to the shower floor as I cried harder. I was completely heartbroken but I was going to move on and get over it.

I was with Adrian which was still kind of mind boggling. He was a great guy, and I was going to try and make him happy. He knew from my aura that I was hurting, but he didn't pressure me into anything. The more I thought of Adrian the better I started to feel. I kept him in my thoughts as the sobs died down and I forced myself to stand up. I stripped out of my clothes and threw them out of the shower. I quickly showered and got out just as the water turned ice cold. I wrapped myself up in a towel and walked into my bedroom.

I quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt then looked at my phone. "Shit!" I swore as I tossed my phone on the bed. I missed four messages from Adrian and six from Lissa. I grabbed socks from my dresser and slipped on my shoes. I went over to my mirror and looked at my reflection. My nose was no longer red and my eyes weren't puffy anymore but my eyes looked blood shot from all of the crying. If I left my room right now to meet up with Adrian and Lissa they would take one look at me and know that I was crying.

My phone vibrated letting me know that I received another text message. I groaned as I grabbed my eye drops the ones helped get rid of redness and put the drops in my eyes. I put the bottle back and grabbed my makeup. I put on some foundation, eyeliner, some light colored eye shadow and my mascara. Once I was done I grabbed my phone and headed over to Adrian's room. We were going to hang out with Lissa and Christian until we had to get ready for the dance.

It didn't take me long to get there but I was already running late. I only had to knock once on his door before he opened it with a smile on his face. He pulled me into the room without hesitating and gave me one hell of a kiss. I smiled against his lips as Lissa chuckled at the act. Adrian pulled back to look at me. He frown a little as he looked at me. He pulled me over to the counter where a paper bag was sitting.

"You look like you could use these." He said as he pushed the bag closer to me. I gave him a funny look as I grabbed the bag. I opened up the bag and my stomach growled. I smiled at Adrian as I pulled out one of my favorite doughnuts. "Go ahead and eat those then we'll start a movie." I told him thank you and nodded to him as I took a big bite. I watched as he rejoined Christian and Lissa in front of the large TV.

I quickly polished off the doughnuts and washed my hands. I walked over to the couch that Adrian was sitting on and I curled up next to him. He wrapped an arm around my waist as Christian put on a movie. I ended up dosing off about halfway through the movie, so when I didn't know what happened. I was woken up a few hours later when Adrian got up off the couch. I was actually a little surprised because it was like he just pushed himself away from me. I was groggy and sat up straight turning my head to look over at Adrian who was now standing with Christian and Lissa in the kitchen area.

They were talking amongst themselves and stopped when Lissa spoke to me. "Good you're up Rose. It's time to go get ready." She didn't say it harshly but there was something up with her tone. I walked over to them and said ok. I said good bye to Christian and went to give Adrian my normal good bye kiss but he only kissed me on the cheek before Lissa pulled me out of the room. I had my eyebrows furrowed as we walked down the hall. What the hell is going on? I thought to myself wondering why Adrian gave me the cold shoulder.

We walked to my room so we could get my stuff then headed to Lissa's. We normally always got ready in her room since we always helped each other out. Once we got there I set my stuff done on her bed. We took turns removing the makeup we had on and proceeded to do our hair. Lissa straightened her hair then braided it into a fancy up-do. I straightened my hair then curled it in different places. I went over to my bag and grabbed the clip on red hair then went back over to the mirror.

I walked over to my dress bag hung it up on the door. I went back over to Lissa as she was getting into her dress. I helped zip her up and then I had to get into my dress. Once I was in my dress Lissa zipped it up for me. I smoothed out my dress and noticed Lissa giving me a funny look. I went to ask her what the look was for but she grabbed me and sat me down into the chair that was in front of her mirror. She worked on my makeup quickly when she finished she said it was perfect. I took one look at myself and I knew the lipstick was way too dark. I furrowed my brows together as I looked at Lissa.

"How is this perfect? My lipstick is too dark, and my eye shadow is way too smudged." I said to her baffled. Never has Lissa ever make that type of mistake. She looked at me funny again, this time it seemed like I had two heads.

"What are you talking about Rose? You look like the whore everyone says you are." She said to me sweetly with a smile gracing her lips. She said that to me like she just told me she got a puppy. I was basically speechless.

"What?" Was the only thing I managed to say.

"You heard me Rose, everyone's been saying it. God only knows how many guys you've actually screwed." She acted like nothing was wrong. My jaw just about hit the floor.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Lissa? You know for a fact that I've never slept with anyone." I basically yelled at her as I grabbed my bag which had the rest of my outfit and shoes in it. I slipped on the shoes I had been wearing earlier. "Why are you being such a bitch I did absolutely nothing to you." My voice cracked as the tears threatened to spill over my eyes. I took one look at her and noticed the smug look on her face. Along with something else I hadn't noticed earlier. There was a silver dragon hanging around her neck.

I slammed the door shut behind me as I took off down the hall and out of the Moroi dorm. Once outside I took a deep breath since my mind was racing. Why haven't I seen that necklace before? Why would she ever say anything like that? Finally the tears started to run down my face. I took a sharp breath and took off running towards my dorm. I was just running and didn't even realize that someone was yelling my name.

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><p><em>Please Review<em>

_Thanks for Reading_

_Shannon_


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